On the jacket of a new novel, COVER STORY, is a quote from fellow writer Robert Parker, proclaiming "Gerry Boyle is the real thing."

Mr. Parker certainly has the credentials to identify the real thing, and he's right on target about Boyle.

COVER STORY (published by Berkley Books) is a first rate New York thriller. It's tough, sassy, penetrating, sharp - well, you have the picture.

Protagonist Jack Morrow is a former New York Times investigative reporter, exiled to a small rural town called Prosperity, Maine, and you can almost smell the lumber being chopped.

But a reunion with a lifelong buddy, ex-cop Butch Casey, is a break in McMorrow's bucolic serenity. He is thrown back into New York City's fast track of high profile crime. It takes us down a path that includes political intrigue, police involvement and cover-ups, journalistic preening and low life pathos.

I refuse to give you the specifics, but will tell you Giuliani watchers that you will be more than intrigued by Mr. Casey's fictional suppositions. What is unmistakable about COVER STORY is the author's ability to paint the picture. He makes New York City come to life, and the plot, while traveling a maze of the Big Apple's underbelly, is always vivid.

COVER STORY is Boyle's sixth novel, but the first I've read. You can be assured I will find the other five in short time.