Wherever There Is Light
By Peter Golden. (Atria Books, 368 pages, $25.)

New York novelist Peter Golden's second novel opens in 1965, as Julian Rose, an aging New Jersey real estate mogul and former gangster, is delivered of a 12-year-old African-American boy who, he learns, is his son by the lost love of his life, Kendall Wakefield. The book then backtracks to 1938, when Julian, a handsome young German Jewish immigrant, and Kendall, the beautiful, artistic daughter of the president of a black college in south Florida, fell in love at first sight.

This sprawling novel is the story of their volatile on-and-off relationship, which finds them having amazing adventures despite ever-present prejudice and their own demons. From Manhattan to Paris, they mingle with historical figures, experience dark days and wild nights, and generally keep us turning the pages to see what captivating if implausible drama will rattle them next.

Golden is clearly trying to write a big American novel, with historical sweep and grand themes, but what we have here is a fancy potboiler. The book has three major flaws. One, its attempts to render dialects — from blacks in the Deep South, then Harlem; to white Southerners, to Europeans of various backgrounds speaking English — are embarrassing. Two, Julian's ever-lovin' heart and good judgment are at odds with his ease at roughing up and murdering people. And three, it's hard to see what makes Julian and Kendall soul mates.

Still, the novel is atmospheric and action-packed, and its surprise ending rewards those able to forgive its literary shortcomings and appreciate it for the skillful soap opera it is.

PAMELA MILLER, night metro editor

The Verdict
By Nick Stone. (Pegasus Books, 499 pages, $25.95.)

Several reviewers of this book compare Nick Stone of Cambridge, England, to John Grisham, the American author best known for his legal thrillers.

"The Verdict" by Nick Stone

Not quite, but Stone has promise. "The Verdict" centers on a legal clerk named Terry Flynt and his onetime best friend Vernon Jones, a wealthy hedge fund manager whom Flynt had come to despise.

They hadn't had any contact for years when Flynt is unexpectedly asked to help out the defense in Jones' murder trial. Oh, and Flynt used to be (still is?) in love with Jones' wife.

Plenty of grist there for plot lines. "The Verdict" is slow-moving in one early section, a bit confusing later when it drifts off into one of its subplots, but all in all, it's a worthwhile read.

Flynt, a former alcoholic, keeps getting into trouble and out of it. He relies on brains and good luck, not brawn, to survive. Other characters don't. Readers also get a peek into the court system in England and how lawyers there operate. Fascinating stuff, as is Jones' trial with its twists and turns.

"The Verdict" earns a spot on my bookshelf.

Roman Augustoviz, sports copy editor