THE SUPERMAN PROJECT

In his second adventure (Chinatown Angel, 2009), Bronx peeper Chico Santana searches for an old pal and gets caught in the coils of a cult.

Over the transom come the Sanchezes, mother and son, prospective clients for Chico Santana and Company, a fledgling p.i. firm in serious need of cash flow. But there’s a downside. Fee? What fee? Money? Something better than money is vaguely promised. Still, no latter-day knight errant can pass up a gig that involves an old friend gone missing. Chico had grown up with Joey Valentin, who’s not merely missing but suspected of having harmed his equally missing wife. So Chico signs on and soon enough is in almost as much trouble as his vanished friend. He labors to work out the nature of “The Superman Project” and Joey’s connection to it. Though Chico—and perhaps the reader—will struggle for a definition less ambiguous than a kind of upscale self-help cult, with a certain Father Ravi as chief guru, it’s clear some people smell money in it. Now that Father Ravi is ailing, there’s suddenly a take-no-prisoners war to determine the Project’s new leadership. Rival claimants clamor, body bags fill and Chico will be hard-pressed to stay alive long enough to make sense of the fallout when a visionary idea turns into a mare’s nest.

Chico’s warmth and appeal are undeniable, but the plot goes beyond implausible.