THE LOVE THAT KILLS

A first novel that soberly, without fanfare or gimmickry, tells the story of Edison Basehart, the militant white supremacist arrested for killing Vietnamese immigrant Hguyen Thi Nhi, in quiet Musket Shoals, Virginia; Jimmy Wilkes, the young prosecutor assigned by his aging patron Edgar Simpson to get a fast conviction; and Nate Rosen, the attorney from the Committee for the Defense of the Constitution who's been sent to assist in the defense of the virulently anti- Semitic Basehart. The ingredients are familiar—Nate stirs up trouble with local rednecks and politicos reaching as high as State Senator Dick Dickerson and his troglodyte son, gets involved with the victim's drugged-out sister Nguyen Thi Trac, and strikes up a wary friendship with Jimmy Wilkes, who worries that he lacks the killer instinct that Simpson's successor needs. But, here, the ingredients are blended by a master's hand; the matter-of-fact bigots of Musket Shoals are treated with compassion and respect, and the clumsy goodness of Jimmy and Nate is improbably affecting. Don't miss this one.