A Good Day To Die

A Good Day To Die Stephen Solomita (Otto Penzler Books, $21) New York City police detective Roland Means is gritty, intriguing, and real enough for thriller fans to demand a dozen more books about him. And author Solomita can deliver, knowing New York's mean streets from years of driving a taxi through them. His half- Cherokee detective is an abused outsider, just like the city's sorriest victims and most repulsive villains. But instead of giving up or turning bad, Means survives-by hunting criminals. The tale begins with the brutal abduction and rape of a blind woman, told from her point of view, and plunges into police politics, a string of bizarre killings of young male prostitutes, and finally into the upstate wilderness, where the hunt turns dark and primal. Solomita delivers his tale at top speed, like a cabbie talking philosophy as he careers through rush-hour traffic. A -D.A. Ball