Book Review

CRIME

Callendar, Newgate

1986

Overview

In ''Hades'' the plotting is fairly traditional, down to the expected encounter between killer and investigator. But it's all in the telling, and the pseudonymous author tells her story in a kind of English that has not been around since the days of Oscar Wilde. Most of the characters speak in rounded periods, often with a touch of malicious wit. '' 'Vashti's?' said Ragwort, with austere disapproval. 'Vashti's has a most unsavoury reputation. I have heard it spoken of as a place frequented by females of unnatural propensity, seeking companions in disgraceful conduct.' '' To which Ragwort's friend Selena answers, ''I have heard it spoken of as an agreeable little establishment where single women may enjoy one another's company in relaxed and convivial surroundings.'' The narrator and amateur detective of this book is a legal scholar named Hilary Tamar. Basically he is a historian, and he describes his profession as ''speaking ill of the dead.'' He is questioning a young man who is terribly impatient with his parents and says some ill-advised things about them, concluding with the statement ''Parents can be very difficult.'' Tamar has only one comment: ''They have suffered a traumatic experience - you must make allowances.'' The twist is in the young Rus-sian's activities. He forms an ''army'' just as the Mafia has done, and when a hit contract is put out on him, he is ready. The goons sent to kill him are slaughtered. In the meantime, an intelligence officer in the New York City Police Department has been concentrating on the activities of the Mob, and he gets involved in the Russian tie-up. The F.B.I. also enters the case, managing to bollix things up beautifully. (Has any crime novelist in recent years had anything good to say about the F.B.I.?) Basically this is more a ''Godfather'' kind of book than a novel about the Russian hotshot. It is well written. Mr. [Bob Leuci] is a very good technician who would appear to know a good deal about organized crime in New York. He takes us backstage into Mafia councils in Brooklyn and Little Italy, gives us a good idea of the kind of people the mobsters are and has organized the elements into a coherent plot. Of course, there is a good deal of action. And there is a good deal about the Russian mentality, climaxed by a meeting in San Diego between the Russian and his former mentor in Moscow. Everything rings true in ''Odessa Beach.'' You won't be bored.

• Publisher: New York Times Company
• Subject: ALLBEURY, TED / Ambler, Eric / ANDERSON, REX / Barnard, Robert / BARNES, LINDA / Bennett, Reid / Block, Lawrence / BOLTON, MELVIN / Borthwick, J S / Boyer, Rick / Boyle, Thomas / Bradshaw, Charlie / BRETT, SIMON / BUTTERWORTH, MICHAEL / CALLENDAR, NEWGATE / CAMPBELL, ROBERT / Carlo, Philip / Carver, Fred / Caudwell, Sarah / Christy, Gordon / Cohen, Stephen / COHEN, STEPHEN PAUL / COLBERT, JAMES / Collins, Max Allan / COOK, BOB / Coyne, Brady / CRIDER, BILL / CROSBY, JOHN / Cuddy, John Francis / CUNNINGHAM, E V / DEFORD, FRANK / DENHAM, 'BERTIE' (LORD) / Denham, Bertie / DOBYNS, STEPHEN / Dobyns, Stephen (1941- ) / ELLROY, JAMES / EMERSON, EARL W / ESTLEMAN, LOREN D / Fennelly, Tony / FOOTMAN, ROBERT / FREEMANTLE, BRIAN / Friedman, Mickey / FROMMER, SARA HOSKINSON / Gash, Jonathan / GEDDES, PAUL / GILL, BARTHOLOMEW / Golding, Harry / GORMAN, EDWARD / GRADY, JAMES / Grammar / Grimes, Martha / HALLAHAN, WILLIAM H / Hansen, Joseph / HART, ROY / HEALEY, JEREMIAH / HEFFERNAN, WILLIAM / HENSLEY, JOE L / HESS, JOAN / HILL, REGINALD / HINKEMEYER, MICHAEL T / Holt, Samuel / HORNIG, DOUG / HYER, RICHARD / John, Gwen / KENRICK, TONY / LANGLEY, BOB / Lassiter, Luke / LEWIN, MICHAEL Z / Lewis, Roy / Longstreet, Maggie / Lutz, John / Lyall, Gavin / Macdonald, Ross / MacKinnon, Colin / Macklin, Peter / Malcolm, John / MAXWELL, A E / Mcdonald, Gregory / Millar, Margaret / Minahan, John / MITCHELL, JAMES / Moore, Barbara / Mulroy, J D / Myers, Paul / Nastase, Ilie / ORMEROD, ROGER / PATTERSON, JAMES / PEARSON, RIDLEY / Plotz, Victor / Pornography / Powder, Leroy / RATHBONE, JULIAN / RAY, ROBERT / Resistance (Psychology) / Resnicow, Herb / Robak, Don / ROSEN, DOROTHY / ROSEN, SIDNEY / ROSS, PHILIP / Salter, Charlie / SCOTT, JACK S / Scudder, Matthew / SIMON, ROGER L / Simpson, Tim / SINGER, SHELLEY / Small Colleges / Small Schools / SMITH, KAY NOLTE / SPENCER, ROSS H / Stinson, Jim / Stock, Matthew / Stoner, Harry / Tamar, Hilary / Tapply, William G / Tarkenton, Fran / Taylor, Andrew / Team Sports / Thompson, James / THOMPSON, JIM / Tourney, Leonard / Valin, Jonathan / WEINMAN, IRVING / WESTBROOK, ROBERT / WESTLAKE, DONALD / Westlake, Donald E / WHITE, STUART / WHITE, TERI / WILTSE, DAVID / Won, Fletch / WOODRELL, DANIEL / Woods, Stuart / Wright, Glover / Zachary, Hugh