BUCKET NUT

A sizzling debut for the author's unlikely new heroine- -Junoesque, foulmouthed Eva Wylie, daughter of an alcoholic prostitute. Eva ekes out an uncertain living as a junkyard night- guard, augmented by part-time wrestling, occasional thievery, and odd jobs for members of London's sleazy underworld. One of those jobs puts her in the middle of a war between mob leaders. Caught in a bomb explosion in which she's one of the targets, Eva escapes, rescuing on her way a pretty blond refugee from the middle class whom she calls Goldie. Goldie is bad news from day one, but she shares Eva's comfortless junkyard trailer and eases her unacknowledged loneliness. Then one day she's gone—the trailer's trashed, and Eva's hard-won, well-hidden savings are gone too, just before her bout with rockin' Sherry-Lee Lewis—her best shot at the big-time. All hell breaks loose at the Ladywell Baths that night, but in its aftermath Eva begins to face the painful truth about the sister she hasn't seen in 15 years, and she will perhaps forge an alliance with thorn-in-her-side investigator Anna Lee (Backhand, etc.). There's a score of vibrant characters here, but Eva is a wondrous creation—an incorrigible innocent in a story that crackles with energy. Super Cody.