Cops and Killers

...Cops and Killers Rooftops Bv Tom Lewis M Evans 288 pp $11 95 Saturday of Glory By David Serafin St Martin's 244 pp $9 95 Reviewed by William Herrick Author, "Love and Terror" THE FIRST novel by Tom Lewis begins with a small black boy named William strolling to school on a hot June day Almost there, he is accosted by a man in a stocking cap pulled tightly down over long dark hair The stranger asks William for directions to a hospital William shies away, yet soon is cajoled by several quarters and then a dol-lar to lead the man to a rooftop where the hospital can ostensibly be more easily viewed The man murders little William, then maltreats him sexually Lewis has written a fiction that is startling in its reality and, for a first effort, remarkable in its professionalism Rooftops is not only the story of a psychopath on the loose in vividly described Hispanic Harlem, but also the love story of Detective Sergeant Daniel Rodriguez, who can't rest until he finds the murderer, and Mercedes Lopez, school teacher and Puerto Rican revolutionary There is also the conflict between Rodriguez and his superior, Detective Lieutenant Eddie O'Malley, as venal and brutal a cop as can be found on or off the streets of New York (or even in the pages of a crime thriller) And behind all this lurks the mysterious Ayala, a Cuban secret agent who is taking over the drug traffic in Manhattan to finance the purchase of arms needed to export Castro's revolution and terror to Latin America The suave, shrewd Ayala uses his vast resources to buy high level police officials too Though Lewis weaves these different intrigues into a strong narrative that drives to an explosive conclusion, the book has at least one subplot too many Its omission would have tightened the story, making it even more eye-riveting Beyond its plot line, Rooftops offers us a glimpse of a people held in contempt by the police and apparently ignored by the city, yet somehow able to eke out a noisy, overcrowded, impoverished existence To his credit, Lewis' sympathy for the poor north of East 96th Street is pervasive, full and free of the paternalistic sentimentality that diminishes as much as an ethnic slur Not least of all, the streets of Hispanic Harlem are so well captured that we can see the bodegas, dingy cafes and desolate tenements, we can smell the place, hear the cacophony of city noises, and wonder how its inhabitants survive with dignity and sanity I found the sex scenes a bit overdone, in fact, the book might have benefited from their absence In general, however, Lewis' prose is exactly right for what he seeks to achieve—straightforward, colorful, muscular The major characters, especially Dan Rodriguez and Mercedes Lopez, are completely realized, and some of the lesser characters are sharply etched More than a good read, Rooftops is an excellent novel, surpassing what most crime yarns are supposed to do—it sticks to the bones What Tom Lewis does for Hispanic Harlem, David Serafin does for Madrid Should you be planning a trip to Spain and that metropolis, reading Saturday of Glory (the old Spanish name for Easter Saturday) will be very helpful You will learn where to get the best tapas near the Puerto del Sol, what streets to avoid if you don't want to get mugged, and the location of the red light district if you are so inclined The jacket blurb informs us that David Serafin is of Anglo-Dutch extraction, was educated in the University of Seville and has worked in Madrid for long periods during the past 21 years His novel leaves you with no doubt that he knows Spain well right from the opemng scene At 7:10 PM on Palm Sunday, Raul Santos Lopez, political journalist, falls to his death from his top-floor flat on Calle de Alfonso III Police Superintendent Luis Bernal is called in to find out whether it is a case of suicide or murder Plump and middle-aged, he looks like a benign Franco Bernal is harried by a wife named Genia, who can neither cook nor understand him He finds refuge in the arms of a bank worker, Consuelo Lozano, with whom he trysts in a secret apartment he has rented Consuelo is more generous with her love than Genia, cooks better and knows the value of holding her tongue Employing modern forensic tools, the Superintendent determines that Santos was pushed to his death He then begins an investigation into the murder with the help of one of the first women in modern Spanish police work, Elena Soon it becomes plain that the motive for the crime was political You see, Santos, an investigative reporter, was onto something and the key is SDG Sabado de Gloria, Saturday of Glory, Easter Saturday As the tale unwinds, Bernal is mugged, just misses being run down by a limousine, is almost pushed off a Metro platform in front of an on rushing subway train, and is confounded by the political section of the police Clearly, a conspiracy is afoot that is to come to fruition on Easter Saturday, a few days hence In fairness to the author I cannot reveal more, lest I give away the entire plot One quibble By the third page, Serafin convinces us that we are in Madrid, that the characters are Spanish, by page four he should have stopped using so many Spanish words and phrases All they do is interrupt the flow I do not blame Serafin so much as his editor Bernal is a sweet man, honest, efficient—a good policeman in short, and it is always a pleasure to meet one Genia is quirky, unsympathetic, most of the other characters make no impression on the reader What does leave a mark is Madrid itself, even though it is changing as are all the world's great cities—for the worse Serafin takes us on a truly pleasant tour of the Spanish capital, not least for someone who has been there and is glad to recognize places that have given him gustatory and visual pleasures in the past...