THE WATERWORKS by E. L. Doctrow...

THE WATERWORKS by E. L. Doctrow (Signet: $6.99; 349 pp.). Doctrow slyly hides an acerbic caricature of contemporary greed and corruption in this murder mystery set in the era of the infamous Tweed Ring. A cantankerous newspaper editor narrates a morbidly fascinating tale of an amoral physician and a venal industrialist who displays “a pattern of loyalty not to any one business, but to the art of buying and selling them.” The mystery story enables Doctrow to present a commentary without seeming didactic; the commentary gives the fantastic mystery a depth it might otherwise lack.