AT SEA

Olson's feverish novels (Utah, 1987, etc.) have always leaned toward menace, and it's not surprising to see him try his hand at a true-blue detective story. His hero, Provincetown cop Peter Blue, is investigating the rape of Beth Charters—and trying to get over shooting drug-runner Jimmy Hale, who was carrying Beth's phone number in his wallet—when his wife Sara, called back to Wisconsin by her mother's illness, decides to return to her old home without him. Things get worse: Peter learns that Beth's been attacked again, raped, and killed. It's obvious that there are connections between Beth's killing and Jimmy's survivors—including a cantankerous father and a sinister cousin who have already been harassing Peter; what isn't obvious is the strange shapes these connections, forged in a gay bar and another smuggling racket, will finally take. Instead of dragging down Olson's imagination, the formulaic conventions actually provide backbone for this pipe-dream of a cop story.