POWDER BURN

The cocaine traffic in Miami—convincingly, tautly fictionalized by two Miami Herald reporters. Architect T. Christopher Meadows meets an old flame on a Miami street with her daughter, but within minutes sees them both killed by a car whose driver is then machine-gunned by a hood from a second car; and Chris himself is shot through the leg. What's going on? Well, Capt. Octavio Nelson, a Cuban-American on the Narcotics Squad, warns Chris in the hospital that Miami is in a drug war between the Cubans and Colombians for control of the coke trade. And it soon becomes clear that the killer-hood—one Mono—is out to erase eyewitness (and gifted portrait sketch artist) Chris, who's almost electrocuted in his swimming pool. Eventually, then, there's a showdown—with Mono himself fatally wounded as Chris turns the killer's knife back. But when Capt. Nelson tracks down poor Chris—now a murderer and fugitive—he offers him an out: Nelson will get Chris off the hook if he goes to Mono's funeral and draws pictures later of Mono's two fellow hoods and of the mysterious el Jefe, chief of the Cuban ring. Chris does this and finds that el Jefe is actually Jose Bermudez, swank banker for the drug trade philanthropist, and likely political candidate for mayor. Now deserted by Nelson, Chris goes underground, joins the drug trade, steals a pound of coke from a fancy dealer, and sets Jose up for a drug bust by Nelson. . . just as Jose is cementing a business pact with the Colombian drug chief. Good, solid underworld melodrama—with some especially authentic touches in the police work (a morgue scene is a standout) and the trafficking.