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Day of the False King

Sue Reider

Pharaoh Ramses IV sends Semerket, Egypt's Clerk of Investigations and Secrets, to Babylon. His assigned mission is to borrow a god's statue to heal the ailing Pharaoh. In addition, Semerket seeks to rescue his beloved ex-wife Naia, who has been exiled for allegedly participating in a conspiracy against the former pharaoh.

Babylon is in turmoil, with neighboring states and local tribes trying to wrest power from the current ruler.Several of the novel's characters are actual historical persons; many of the events are also real. Within this framework, the author builds a complex tale of ancient politics. Semerket is witness to the instability of a geographical area in transformation--all the various motives and machinations provide a very complicated background of intrigue and self-dealing. Both of the Egyptian's missions involve him in a variety of ongoing schemes--some to gain power; others simply to survive the chaos. Semerket is both principled and conscientious. His psychological state as he confronts a possible choice between his obligation and his desire makes Semerket realistic and pleasurable to read about.

The striking thing about this book is its almost overwhelming complexity. The author does a masterful job of explaining the political situation, describing the many interwoven conspiracies in clear and enjoyable detail. The time period of the book is ancient, yet the political and moral dilemmas are relevant to modern times. Both aspects make this a challenging and interesting reading experience.

Death on the Lizard

Sue Reider

Normally, one thinks of the early twentieth century as a somewhat gentler time, yet the predatory business methods detailed in this story seem uncannily modern. Set in a time when propriety in personal life was deemed so important, these practices seem even harsher.

Gugielmo Marconi has asked Charles Sheridan to look into two accidental deaths at a transmission station in Cornwall. Shortly after his arrival, Charles learns that a prototype of new equipment is missing. Meanwhile his wife, Kate, visits a nearby friend whose daughter recently drowned, only to find the friend involved with a mysterious yachtsman.

It's hard to pinpoint one aspect of the book that stands out, as everything is so well done. The co-authors, Bill and Susan Wittig Albert, do a stellar job of mixing fictional and actual characters, presenting the historical personages accurately and the fictional ones realistically. Charles finds himself in the middle of the cut-throat competition for the latest technology; a competition which involves greedy individuals as well as high government officials from several nations. Kate is a bit of an enigma. As a writer, she has a forceful alter ego that is always eager to try new things the more decorous private Kate wouldn't normally do. This gets her involved with neuroscientists and s?ances in an attempt to resolve the dreams that are plaguing her friend, Lady Loveday.

This book is an amusing and intriguing look back at a period that in some ways mirrors much of our own times. Both Charles and Kate are delightful characters.

Delete All Suspects

Sue Reider

Eddie, a website operator, is injured in a hit-and-run. His grandmother hires private investigator Tim Pincoski to look into the incident. Tim calls upon his computer expert friends Maude Graham and Turing Hopper to help. They learn that Eddie ran some most unsavory sites. When the FBI, in the person of Maude's current lover, Dan Norris shows up, confusion reigns.

Turing is a most unusual character, since "she" is actually an Artificial Intelligence Personality. For a computer, she is most endearing. Turing's musings on human actions and relationships are captivating, funny and sometimes poignant. They reveal both the strengths and frailties of the human condition. As she processes billions of bits of data, Turing realizes that she is slowly but continuously gaining human understanding and evolving a personality Maude Graham, Turing's mentor, faces a major ethical dilemma. Maude and her friends are cutting off an online vigilante's access to sites, interfering with the FBI's efforts to locate the perpetrator of multiple frauds. In addition, Maude feels it necessary to hide the fact that Turing is a computer, fearing government interference.

The recounting of the story is unusual, alternating sections narrated by Turing and the various human characters. This is necessary, since Turing is dependent on the humans to tell her anything that happens outside the range of her cameras. The author does an admirable job of joining the accounts into a seamless whole, and delivers an engaging mystery.

Dope

Derek Hill

The time is the early 1950s; the place, New York City. We've been down these mean streets before, but Sara Gran's excursion into the seedy underbelly of the city and the junkies, prostitutes, thieves, and victims that reside in the lower circles of it, reshapes the hardboiled cliches into a rich, subtle brew of character and emotion. It also packs a pistol-whipping wallop when the going gets tough. And tough it gets.

Josephine Flannigan is in her mid-thirties and life isn't getting any easier. But it's never been easy for Josephine, who grew up in Hell's Kitchen and is a recovering heroin addict. Because of Flannigan's struggles with drugs and her familiarity with the underworld, a wealthy couple offers her a job locating their missing drug-addicted daughter. It's the thousand dollars she's paid, not altruism, that motivates Josephine to take the gig.

Soon, Josephine is back on the neon noir streets of her past, interrogating old junkie pals, taxi dancers, and other denizens of the pulp imagination. In lesser hands, this could be one big yawn with its standard-issue dime store plot and post-WWII setting, but Gran wisely enriches the storyline with finely drawn characters and realism. Yet it's Flannigan herself who makes the novel come alive. She's a refreshing voice in a male-dominated genre, and her observations of the city's grinding up of those too weak to do some grinding themselves is heartbreaking and unforgettable. A must-read book all the way to the bitter end.

Drive

Richard Helms

There are many things you should ignore about this book. You should, for instance, ignore the fact that it's only 157 pages in length, not much more than a novella. You should ignore the fact that it costs almost twenty dollars. You may wish to pass over the fact that it is unlikely to show up at your local big box bookstore because it is from a small (but deeply impressive) publishing company, Robert Rosenwald's Poisoned Pen Press.

You would want to ignore all these things because Drive is a small treasure, penned by one of our best unknown American crime writers, James Sallis.

Driver, the protagonist, is a movie stunt driver and occasional wheelman for heists. He is very cautious not to become involved in the actual robberies, claiming that all he does is drive. Before the book opens, Driver has been double-crossed, and we enter the book in a scene of destruction and death. Someone has tried to kill Driver in a motel room, and failed miserably. Driver must discover who set him up and why. The rest of the book alternates between his sly manipulation of a transplanted Brooklyn restaurant owner and poignant glimpses of Driver's childhood. Like most good noir, it is clear that the path Driver traverses is not necessarily one of his own choosing.

James Sallis is a monumentally talented author who, like a fine wine, only improves with age. In Drive, he has produced a gem of a tale, well-worth the discriminating reader's time and admiration. Ten stars out of five, at least. Please, Mr. Sallis, write more.

Eye of the Burning Man

Barbara Fister

Mick Callahan is a man with a past, a mean right hook, and a radio talk show. He's pretty good at giving people advice--just not necessarily good at taking it. When Mary, a drug addict, prostitute, and porn actress turns to him for help he does his best to give her a chance at getting clean and away from her pimp, but it's not easy. Meanwhile his Latina housekeeper's nephew has vanished. What Mick doesn't know--and the reader does, through harrowing passages interspersed throughout the book--is that the boy has been abducted by a group of men who make child pornography.

When a threatening FBI agent working on a child exploitation initiative wants to know if Mick knows anything about a violent kiddy porn ring, Mick has to wonder if it's all connected--and if it has anything to do with the man who attacked him for no apparent reason, a man with a strange tattoo of a stick man in a ring of fire.

The rollercoaster storyline of this book will please adrenaline junkies more than those who prefer intricately plotted mysteries, and the subject matter is disturbing, but the real strength of this book is in its central characters--flawed, human, often funny, sometimes tragic--and the relationships among them. This is a sequel to Shannon's Memorial Day (2004) and many of the story threads come together so readers may prefer to read the books in order.

Fit to Die

Hank Wagner

Shocked by her husband's abrupt decision to divorce her, Lauren Prescott is astounded to learn how low her man will stoop when she returns home one evening to find it emptied of almost everything of value. In addition, he also drains their bank accounts.

Desperate to make ends meet, the ex-homemaker is forced to seek a job in her old profession, journalism. She wins a tryout at a regional magazine by promising its editor a profile on a local fitness guru who was recently was found dead, ironically in the midst of a jog. Her probe into the life and finances of health nut Stan Harris and his quirky extended family uncovers dangerous secrets, some that people are willing to kill to keep.

Appealing and down to earth, Lauren Prescott makes a sympathetic protagonist. Readers will immediately empathize with her plight and chuckle at her first unsure steps into a new world. She's the epitome of the plucky heroine--instead of wallowing in self pity, she moves ahead, even though she has no idea where's she's going at first. Seeing her learn how to navigate new terrain while dealing with the complications which arise is gratifying.

Featuring a strong, plausible plot, realistic characters, copious amounts of gentle humor, romance, and a twisty, well-conceived mystery, this book will keep readers guessing until the final page. Stuck has a winner on her hands--hopefully, we'll see another novel featuring Lauren Prescott soon.

Freeze Me Tender

Mary Elizabeth Devine

Las Vegas, with its neon, casinos, and tackiness, is never far from the forefront of this weird and often charming novel. Two of the main characters are dead: Colton Purcell, the King of Rock 'n' Roll (read Elvis), who has been dead and frozen for ten years and reporter Buzzy Sawyer, recently murdered because of a secret he may have been on the brink of revealing. At the center of this mayhem is Harry Bauer, a reporter from Chicago who inadvertently gets dragged into covering the Colton Powell Impersonator Contest.

Anyone who gets queasy on roller coasters may have trouble with the plot. It moves from one set of characters to another at lightning speed. On one side we have the relatives of Purcell, whose widow (and ex-wife) is distraught that her daughter is about to marry one of the silliest humans on the planet, Pablo, the Prince of Latin Pop. On the other is Bauer, who through no fault of his own, finds himself up to his ears with the local mafia.

Besides the laugh-a-minute plot, Black has a wonderful ear for dialogue, from the whiny Pablo to the internalized neuroses of the cigarette obsessed would-be impresario, Eric. Though I loathed Las Vegas on my only visit there, I thoroughly enjoyed Black's depiction of the city and its off-the-wall characters.

Geezer

Hank Wagner

Unconventional research engineer Alan Dyson has spent years searching for a way to promote longevity in human beings. Just as his research finally seems to be bearing some fruit, his superiors at Tactar Pharmaceutical abruptly cut his funding, reassigning him to other projects. Stunned, but seemingly resigned to his fate, Dyson reluctantly abides by their decision.

Shortly after his reassignment, however, Dyson's research is stolen by parties unknown, and an associate dies under mysterious circumstances. Enraged by, and under suspicion in, the theft and death, Dyson, through a friend, uncovers a clue which leads him to the small town of Zion, Iowa in search of the thieves. His trip to Zion may ultimately prove fatal, as Dyson's presence and questions begin to irritate the members of an insidious conspiracy, one which has chosen the town as a test site for a chilling medical experiment.

Gentlemen and Players

Mary Welk

Roy Straitley is an aging Latin teacher starting his ninety-ninth term at St. Oswald's, an exclusive English boys' school. Unfortunately for Straitley, Latin, like honesty, is fast fading as a requirement for attaining the status of "gentleman." For players in today's world, computer proficiency is a must. Straitley, a confirmed "computer refusenik," is out of his element when computer science not only begins to dominate the curriculum, but also threatens the existence of St. Oswald's. For a player has joined the teaching staff, a player whose hatred for all the school represents will, over the course of the term, destroy the only world Straitley knows. Straitley may be King of an aging realm, but a computer savvy Pawn plans to rule the future.

Alternating chapters tell of the Pawn's twisted past and the King's attempt to cope with each new tragedy that befalls the school. Straitley finds himself going from beloved schoolmaster to vilified fool in the eyes of his students and co-workers. With no rules to guide him in this dangerous game of chess, Straitley must rely on his knowledge of the past to win this match between good and evil.

Joanne Harris' portrayal of an English academic world fast approaching extinction is magnificent in its rich characterization. Her plotting leaves nothing to be desired, and as accomplished writers do, she leaves enough red herrings scattered in her path to stump the most avid mystery fan. Harris should elicit only the highest praise for this, her seventh novel.

Girls of Tender Age

Jeff Siegel

Mary-Ann Tirone Smith is best known for her Poppy Rice series, featuring the female FBI agent who is, in her author's words, dedicated to justice. There's a little bit of that in Girls of a Tender Age, but from a completely different perspective. It's a memoir of growing up in a working class section of Hartford, Conn., in the decade or so after World II. These are hard times, compounded by the presence of Smith's brother, Tyler, who is autistic in a time before medicine understood the condition, and by the rape and murder of one of Smith's fifth-grade classmates in 1953.

Bob Malm traveled across the country committing a string of rape-murders on his way to Hartford. In a hardboiled, dead-pan manner, Smith skillfully weaves his story with her own of growing up with a brother who tried to eat his wrist when he heard loud noises, the give-and-take of a Catholic family trying to find that era's American Dream, and the aftermath of what Malm did to Irene Fiederowicz. There is bitterness and pain in Girls of a Tender Age, but Smith is almost always in control of the story, whether she is describing what happened to Irene or discussing the goings-on at autism support group.

Holmes on the Range

Mary Elizabeth Devine

It is a rare sight to find a cowboy addicted to Sherlock Holmes. Rarer still when the cowboy is illiterate. Gustav Amlingmeyer enlists his brother Otto to read Holmes again and again and again. Having migrated to Montana in 1893, they sign on with another group of down-on-their luck cowboys as hands at the VR Ranch, overseen by the sadistic McPherson, his equally wicked brother Spider, and his associate Boudreaux, supervised by the ranch manager Perkins.

When a barely recognizable body is discovered on the ranch trail, all but Gustav are sure that the death was an accident. But Gustav's "deducifying" skills are really tested when Boudreaux' body is found in the fetid outhouse, this after the English owners have arrived to inspect the ranch, complete with an aristocratic cowboy wannabe, who provides much amusement, both for the cowboys and the reader.

Otto is a worthy Watson, having had some education, thanks to his mother. His mordant wit is a worthy antidote to the intensity of his brother. All the characters are skillfully drawn--from the hands who signed on for what amounts to servitude on the ranch to the English aristocrats who aren't quite sure how to deal with these rough-hewn examples of the American West.

As one whose knowledge of the old West was gleaned from TV shows, I can't vouch for the authenticity of Holmes on the Range except to say that every description of the dreadfully unpleasant smells and the relentless dawn to dusk tedium of cowboy life rings true.

The first part of the book is principally devoted to the life on the ranch; the pace quickens after Boudreaux' murder and the discovery of all sorts of financial mischief by the McPhersons, and some equal wickedness by the English owners.The conclusion makes "Gunfight at the OK Corral" look like a Sunday school picnic. At the end, Holmes' "disciple" comes through, and several worthy characters ride off into the sunset.

Into the Blue

Jeff Siegel

A bit of the way through Into the Blue, someone asks Harry Barnett what it feels like to come back to England after so many years abroad. And Barnett, echoing more than 100 years of British literary history, says he feels disoriented--"as if the England I've come back to isn't the England I've left."

This is the touchstone of Goddard's book, first published in Britain in 1990. Barnett, whose troubles led to self-imposed exile in Greece, is one of a long line of characters from Conrad's Lord Jim, to Malcom Lowry's Geoffrey Firmin in Under the Volcano, and including any number of Graham Greene heroes that have fled England because of scandal or disgrace. In Barnett's case, a woman with ties to his problems goes missing, and since Barnett is the prime suspect, he must face his past in order to clear himself.

The book, written at the end of the Thatcher era, creaks a bit in places but Goddard knows England. He knows men like Harry, not exactly eager for a chance to redeem themselves but ready to do it if the opportunity presents itself. And Harry makes the most of his opportunity.

Jacquot and the Waterman

Beverly J. DeWeese

Ex-rugby star Daniel Jacquot loves being a Marseilles cop. He'd really like to solve the murders of the four women who have been savagely raped by the Waterman, but all of his work, which leads him to known petty criminals or powerful, corrupt men, seems to criss-cross and double back. Can he ever find the killer?

This mystery has a rich, colorful setting: the underbelly of Marseilles with its diverse population, its humid heat, its thriving crime, and its open acceptance of drugs, graft, and prostitution. O'Brien truly makes us feel, smell, hear, and see Marseilles.

Jacquot is a likeable cop. Ruggedly handsome and quietly sharp, he has many friends. Yet he cannot seem to sustain a lasting relationship with a woman and often feels lonely. Other less savory characters are also vividly drawn: the Arab grifter who lets his subordinates do the killing; a tortured, elegant aristocrat who's being blackmailed; and a filthy rich American wife with a penchant for all kinds of sexual peccadilloes. Even a couple of overconfident hit men are fascinating characters.

Some may find the plot too intricate, but O'Brien writes skillfully, and the Marseilles setting simply reaches out and surrounds the reader. The ending may seem "out of left field" for some, but the unexpected finale seemed totally realistic to me. Cops often don't have logical resolutions to their investigations.

Mad River Road

Jeff Siegel

Joy Fielding doesn't waste any time in Mad River Road, her 18th book. In the opening pages, the bad guy, out for revenge, finds his first victim and "knocked her on her back and straddled her, using the switchblade to cut the drawstring of her pajama bottoms even as his hand tightened its death grip on her neck." And then things really get violent.

The bad guy wants to get even with his ex-wife, whom he blames for his time in jail, and he won't spare anyone in the process. Meanwhile, Jamie Kellogg, whose luck with men--an ex-husband, and a married boyfriend--is all bad, picks up a stranger in a bar and figures things just got better.

Yes, there are certain Hitchcockian elements to this thing, as Fielding draws the two plot strands closer together. Of course, to some it might be more obvious than to others how the strands are connected, but Fielding is nothing if not well-versed in how to move the action along. So even if you can figure out what's going to happen, the journey is exciting.

Malpractice in Maggody

Sue Reider

A new upscale drug rehabilitation center in Maggody, Arkansas has the townspeople in an uproar. The facility is very secretive, so numerous rumors abound as to its real purpose. When a local worker is murdered, police chief Arly Hanks is assigned by the county sheriff to investigate.

Misunderstandings, mix-ups and conflicts abound in this well-constructed mystery. The herbalist, psychiatrist, and plastic surgeon who run the clinic have some of the funniest staff meetings ever described, since they can't agree on how to diagnose or treat any of their famous patients. The patients have been court-ordered into treatment, but are resourceful in seeking ways to avoid dealing with their disorders. The sheriff and Arly both have vacations planned and are trying to steer clear of the investigation. Then Arly is mistake for a new receptionist and enters a very strange work environment.

As more deaths ensue, the situation becomes increasingly confused. Arly's investigation reveals that almost everyone on the suspect list is hiding something from their past. The large and dysfunctional Buchanon family usually adds comic relief to the Maggody series; with the introduction of the bizarre people at the treatment center, many of them start to appear fairly normal.

The juxtaposition of a determined murderer with laugh-out-loud situations makes this a most enjoyable book.

Mark of the Lion

Molly Adams

Imagine lying in the dark in a strange place. All you can hear is the pounding of your own heart, and then, the throaty growl of a cheetah. You keep perfectly still as the cheetah's warm breath blows across your face. Could you stay calm enough not to scream?

If you were Jade del Cameron, the hero of Suzanne M. Arruda's book Mark of the Lion, you could. But then, Jade has already endured years of driving an ambulance in France during World War I, so she has proven her bravery. Now in Africa to keep a promise to a dying friend, she faces new challenges and dangers. In her search for her friend's missing brother, Jade confronts a menacing evil that threatens to destroy her, as it has others before her.

In Mark of the Lion, Arruda beautifully recreates the sights, sounds, and even the aromas of British East Africa in 1919. A former zookeeper and an avid hiker, the author has a deft touch when describing the animals and scenery of Africa. You will feel as if you are on safari as Jade follows the trail of the missing brother. From a Nairobi train station to the Chyulu Hills, you are there.

But the danger that follows throws a pall over the scenic beauty and the eeriness is heightened by the supernatural powers stalking Jade. Mark of the Lion will sweep you up and carry you away to a land of great beauty and great danger that you will not soon forget.

Mary, Mary, Shut the Door and Other Stories

Mary Welk

Benjamin Schutz won the Shamus and Edgar awards for his debut Leo Haggerty story. That same story serves as the title for this collection of Schutz's fiction. Following two off-beat pieces featuring college students/part-time PIs Matt and Sean Ellis, Haggerty appears in "What Goes Around," a tale of a stalker who gets his comeuppance thanks to the wily investigator. In "Mary, Mary, Shut the Door" Haggerty is hired to prevent Enzo Scolari's niece from marrying Derek Marshall. Haggerty fails in his mission, but when Gina dies in an "accident," he swears he'll nab Marshall some day. He gets that chance in "Lost and Found" when he's hired by Scolari to follow Marshall to Mexico. There he learns that revenge can be sweet indeed. Schutz introduces PI Max Barlow in a tough but tender little piece called "The Black Eyed Blonde." In this story, Barlow explains why he never takes on divorce work.

Ransom Triplett is a forensic psychologist who appears in two Schutz works. Triplett investigates the murder conviction of a man on Death Row in "Not Enough Monkeys." Some stunning plot twists puts this and the second Triplett story, "Expert Opinion," head and shoulders above anything seen on TV's CSI. "The State versus Adam Shelley" is perhaps the strangest story in the collection, part horror, part fresh from today's news. Schutz shows true genius in this one. Three excellent shorts featuring police protagonists Avery Bitterman and Max Kincaid complete this unique collection and further highlight Schutz's amazing ability for creating complex characters and situations.

Memory Book

Beverly J. DeWeese

PI Benny Cooperman has just awakened in the hospital with a very serious head wound and amnesia. Now he has to solve the most critical mysteries of his career: who is he, what has happened to him, and how can he solve any of these mysteries when he has lost the ability to read?

Memory Book, named for a journal which a nurse has suggested he keep while struggling to recover, is not an intricately plotted mystery, but it is one of the most fascinating concepts I have encountered in mystery fiction. Most PI's suffer little or no damage from their repeated beatings etc., but Benny is a more realistic hero. His problem is that the blow to the head has caused alexia sine agraphia (he can write, but he cannot read). Engel skillfully and successfully takes us into Benny's mind as he gradually sorts out clues and struggles to make connections between his broken memory and what has happened to him. He really labors to find answers without being able to read phone books, signs, newspapers, or even toothpaste packages. Fortunately, he still has his sense of humor.

Obviously, readers of mysteries will have the utmost sympathy for someone who is suddenly unable to read--anything. And Benny's persistent and clever attempts to work around his frustrating problem will charm most readers. Apparently, Engel himself suffered this condition after a stroke, but he still writes a very good mystery. Highly recommended.

Nose for Trouble

Lynne Maxwell

In this wonderfully engaging mystery, veteran author Doranna Durgin introduces the appealing Dr. Dale Kinsall, an accomplished veterinarian and recent transplant from Ohio to Arizona. When Dale, accompanied by his sidekick, a Beagle named Sully, arrives at his new veterinary clinic in the desert, bizarre events occur from the outset.

Dale is immediately reprimanded by a passing bicyclist for an innocent infraction of environmental laws, and things just get worse. Dale--with the assistance of Sully's astute nose for trouble--stumbles upon a dead body during a routine walk and begins to question the wisdom of his relocation. He begins receiving mysterious messages warning him to be careful, but Dale doesn't scare easily, despite his history in Ohio, which included being victimized by an arsonist who destroyed his veterinary practice there.

When he refuses to be intimidated, he and Sully are attacked by a mysterious truckload of kids who spray them with tear-gas, aggravating Dale's life-threatening asthma and initiating Sully into the cruelties of humankind. Dale's tenacity and his burgeoning relationship with Dr. Laura, a veterinarian in a rival clinic, assist him in getting to the bottom of things and finally beginning his new life in his new home.

As it tracks Dale on his daily rounds, Nose for Trouble provides true insight into the practice of veterinary medicine. A captivating read, it also shifts points of view, occasionally permitting commentary from Sully the Beagle.

On the Run

Lynne Maxwell

Okay, I admit I had never heard of Lorena McCourtney, much less read her books, when I began ,em>On the Run, the third novel in her series featuring Ivy Malone. And I was a bit skeptical about the premise: a LOL (little old lady) in a motor home (with her cat, no less) stumbles upon a murder scene while on the run from dangerous criminals who are in hot pursuit because she assisted in obtaining a murder conviction for one of the senior clan members.. How engaging could that be? Well, very much so, it turns out.

In Ivy Malone, McCourtney has created an intelligent, witty character with a unique narrative voice. A retired librarian, Ivy has acquired sleuthing skills from her avocation as a voracious reader of mysteries, and she has ample opportunity to exercise her acumen for detecting when she selects a seemingly sleepy Oklahoma town as a safe haven. With her newly acquired sidekick Abilene, an abused wife also on the lam from a vicious pursuer, Ivy seeks a job as caretaker for two eccentric ex-Hollywood screenwriters who own a local emu farm. Alas, she discovers her potential employers dead on their living room sofa, with a suicide note nearby. Did the cranky couple forge a suicide pact, or were they murdered for their substantial wealth? Suspects abound, including a disgruntled former employee, a son with financial worries, and his gold-digging wife and ex-wife. Join Ivy as she unearths the truth. You'll be glad you did.

Open and Closed

Mary Elizabeth Devine

Who would close a library that was built just two years ago? The council of Crowdon (England) is determined to do just that, because the library isn't turning a profit (!). A group of staff and readers have combined to stage a sit-in, protesting the action and hoping to save the library. Unfortunately, one of the group's stalwarts, Bert Rosen, is murdered in his office.

Front and center in the investigation are detectives Packham and Mitchell, who are artfully created as a pair of "almost" siblings. Parkham, the older and more thoughtful, believes that libraries should be saved and sympathizes with the protesters. Mitchell, the younger brother, is more intuitive than his sibling and always ready for a joke at Packham's expense.

There are some small negatives but the plot clips along with the policemen as much in the dark as the reader.

Slipping Into Darkness

Barbara Fister

Twenty years ago, Detective Francis X. Loughlin used his instincts as a crack interrogator to solve the high-profile murder of a young female doctor. Now the boy he convicted has been released on a technicality. When another young physician is murdered in a similar way, Julian Vega is a natural suspect--until the evidence comes in. Blood found under the latest victim's fingernails doesn't match Vega's DNA: it matches that of the first victim.

Loughlin struggles to make sense of this new information while avoiding the fact that he won't be able to work much longer; he's losing his eyesight, his field of vision narrowing daily. As Vega tries to find a witness who might vindicate him, he gropes his way through a world so changed he barely recognizes it.

Told from the alternating viewpoints of Loughlin and Vega, each man confronts his past while trying to set the record straight. Loughlin is forced to reevaluate the corner-cutting investigative work he did as a younger man; Vega begins to dimly rediscover the gentler person he was before prison gave him a hair-trigger temper and wary distrust of the world.

Though billed as "shatteringly suspenseful," Slipping into Darkness is less a nail-biting thriller than a thoughtful, carefully constructed and insightful interrogation of the mysteries of the human heart. Highly recommended.

Speak of the Devil

Jeff Siegel

Know first that the plot of Speak of the Devil, Richard Hawke's first novel, is a big, sloppy mess. Know, also, that some of the characters are not drawn with the utmost skill--and that some are drawn with so much skill that part of the book could well be a roman ? clef. And know, most importantly, that none of this makes the least bit of difference. Speak of the Devil is a huge success, and Hawke's hero, a quick-witted, self-effacing private eye named Fritz Malone may well be the next big thing.

Think Dashiell Hammett's sensibility, Donald Westlake's wink and a nod, and Raymond Chandler's pacing ("When in doubt, kick in a door"). Speak of the Devil seems to be about a madman who shoots up the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, but Hawke throws in New York's biggest cop scandal since Serpico as well as a character who is the New York Irish version of Spenser's Hawk and an assortment of cops, politicians, nuns, and skels who keep popping in and out in no apparent pattern. Hawke (though there is a picture of him, it's hard to believe that's his real name) is a gifted writer who understands character, and Malone is much more than just another private eye with a ready quip and a sexy girlfriend. If Hawke ever does learn to plot, he could eventually do things with the private eye novel that haven't been done in a while.

Spurred Ambition

Hank Wagner

Spurred Ambition is Phelan's third novel (following 2002's Heir Apparent and 2005's Family Claims) set in Pinnacle Peak, Arizona (loosely placed somewhere between Scottsdale and Carefree/Cave Creek). It is also second to feature the high-strung trouble magnet Hannah Dain. Still reeling from the developments in her personal life detailed in Family Claims, lawyer Dain tries to distract herself by taking on some legal work for the Tohono O'odham, a local Native American tribe.

Handling what appears to be an uncomplicated bond offering for the tribe under the guidance of Tony Soto in the Office of Tribal Affairs, Hannah is thrown for a loop when her superior is kidnapped right before her eyes. Tony's disappearance puts her on alert to a potential securities fraud, but there's no way she can predict the sequence of odd and decidedly dangerous events about to befall her.

Phelan's breezy style makes for riveting reading, and her first hand knowledge of legal matters adds verisimilitude to her storytelling. Intelligent, athletic, brash and gutsy, yet still vulnerable somehow, Hannah is a very attractive point of view character, one who readers quickly grow to admire and care about. Although Phelan loads myriad dilemmas on her capable heroine's shoulders, including strained relations with her family, questions about her parentage, a tenuous relationship with a former flame, and a life-threatening situation in her workplace, none of it seems overdone. The author has struck a delicate balance that will certainly appeal to her audience and leave them craving more.

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