Tale of New York crime and racial inequalities.(BOOKS)

Byline: Christian Toto, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Richard Price's latest crime drama features troubled cops and a murder witness who can't bear to look at himself in the mirror.

In "Lush Life," the author's first novel in five years, Mr. Price x-rays an otherwise straightforward shooting to find the racial and class divisions seething below the surface. Mr. Price is hardly tilling virgin soil. Seedy cop novels set in the Big Apple are nothing new, but it's the way that Mr. Price spins his stories that makes them feel like minor revelations.

And if not for a few ...

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