PRIME SUSPECT

The number one suspect in the Fort Worth police investigation into the murder of Marissa Hardin, Lackey Ferguson--a carpenter Marissa had met with the morning of her death--is determined to find the real killer. 15,000 first printing.

Gray's ( The Man Offside ) tough, energetic new novel packs disturbing crime scenes, salty language and cynical working-class views of the power elite. Lackey Ferguson, an honest ex-serviceman who runs a contracting business in Fort Worth, Tex., wants to save enough money to take his fiancee, Nancy, on a San Francisco honeymoon. He figures he has it made when wealthy Percy Hardin hires him to build a $100,000 bathhouse for Mrs. Hardin. Lackey closes the deal, nobly fends off Mrs. Hardin's amorous advances and departs, nearly sideswiping a Volvo with his lovingly maintained pickup on the way out. Driving the Volvo is a vicious, unhinged parolee named Everett "Monkey Man" Wilson, who assaults and murders the hapless Mrs. Hardin per her loathsome husband's orders. Soon Lackey is interrogated by an unlovable assistant D.A. and two smarmy cops; meanwhile Nancy--shown on a TV news spot--has become part of Monkey Man's perverse fantasy life. Lackey evades arrest to get the goods on Percy, while Mexican-American Nancy thwarts racist, sexist cops anxious to pin the rap on him. Readers will sympathize with the underdog heroes of this rousing, hard-boiled suspense story.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Lackey Ferguson, part-owner of F&F Construction, a small company that hires parolees as laborers, doesn't realize he's being set up as fall-guy when Percy Hardin, from the posh side of town, invites him over to discuss building a poolhouse for his wife, Marissa, then leaves Lackey alone with her. When Marissa is raped and murdered and Percy has an airtight alibi, Lackey becomes the prime suspect--even though forensics can't match his pubic hair and semen to that found at the scene (facts that the cops, eager for a ``quick solve,'' are willing to ignore). So Lackey begins his own investigation, which leads to the death of a parolee/employee and the abduction of his fianc‚e, Nancy. Meanwhile, the killer Percy hired has his own agenda--getting Percy to pay up, which he can't do until the insurance comes through. Several gruesome deaths later, the killer is cooing over Nancy in his hide-out; Percy and his sister-in-law are arguing in bed; and Lackey is on the run from the cops and in search of Nancy.... As Gray proved in Bino and Size, he can out-tough the best of them, even Elmore Leonard. This is less complex than its predecessors, but, still, sharp, taut, and mean. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The author of The Man Offside ( LJ 5/1/91) begins with a painfully obvious plot and only intermittent sparkle, but exciting retribution awaits in this crime novel's second half. Newly released from the armed services, Lackey Ferguson struggles to make a go of his small construction business in Fort Worth, but everything seems to work against him: a snide parole officer harasses the ex-cons he employs; the bank refuses to lend him money; and a racist cop vows that Lackey murdered the rich woman who earlier that day hired him. With the aid of spunky girlfriend Nancy, Lackey tracks the real killer. A marginal purchase.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.