Night Train, by Martin Amis (Vintage, £5.99 in UK)

Few could dispute this comic satirist's flair and obvious linguistic virtuosity, yet his excursion into tough US police-speak falls short on several fronts. His narrator, Mike Hoolihan, is a female cop with a history of brutal father, bad men and too much booze. She's so tough and beyond pain at this stage that it comes as a surprise to her to discover how cut up she is about the murder of the beautiful young daughter of her old mentor on the force. With a narrative torn between Hoolihan's B movie, cigarette-between-teeth monotone and her highly unconvincing abstract deliberations, the actual crime becomes secondary. Amis is brilliant on London low life, but Night Train reassuringly confirms that even smart guys can make mistakes, and how.