Beach House 7

After the Vietnam War, Peter Voss, a former computer expert for the U.S. Army, is in Bangkok, protecting his younger brother, with David Sloane, a skilled pilot, a young bar girl, and Jake Berman, a barfly stringer for UPI

A ship filled with boat people floats listlessly toward a reef. Aboard is an escaping South Vietnamese lieutenant carrying a module for an extravagant CIA computer left behind after the victory of the Communist forces. Peter Voss, who operated this computer for the U.S. Army from Beach House 7, wants to reclaim the powerful module to help him rifle banks in southeast Asia. He recruits the help of David Sloan, a recently retired banker and erstwhile pilot. In his second novel (The Kaligarh Fault, Roadarmel suspends the reader between Conradian tragedy and le Carre-likecomplexity. He adroitly manipulates a clutch of hard-boiled, sometimes seedy characters, all of whom face despair on the one hand and deep-seated corruption on the other. Fast-paced, gritty dialogue and grisly scenes keep this thriller a cut above the average. (January 26) Copyright 1986 Cahners Business Information.