Close Case, by Alafair Burke, Henry Holt, 336 pages, $27.95
Close Case is the third in the Samantha Kincaid series by Burke, and in it she comes into her own as a writer. The first two books were good, with great characters and a nice sense of place. In other words, exactly what you'd expect from James Lee Burke's smart lawyer daughter.
But Close Case is different. There's an ease of writing, a smoothing of the hard edges, the touches that take a writer to the next stage in development, and Alafair Burke has reached it.
The story, as in her other novels, seems simple. A nosy investigative journalist is beaten to death in his carport. Suspects are found, a couple of ne'er-do-well youths on a crime rampage. There is a confession.
But all this is merely the edge of a much deeper mystery. There have been tensions in Portland, Ore., a police shooting, anti-police protests. Then the confessed killer recants and claims the police forced his confession. That leads Samantha Kincaid to conduct her own investigation, one that leads up to the highest echelons of Portland politics and then to the police department, where Detective Chuck Forbes, Samantha's live-in boyfriend, has to answer for his lover's actions.
That's all just a touch of the dense plot in this excellent novel. Legal fans will love the fact that Burke, a law professor at Hofstra University, gives the reader plenty of insider bits, but none of the dense jargon that slows down the action. Fans of James Lee Burke might hunt in vain for some of his lyrical prose. There isn't any.
Cape Perdido, by Marcia Muller, Mysterious Press, 305 pages, $33.95
Why devotees of Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky haven't discovered Marcia Muller is a mystery to me. She's been writing as long, with more than 30 books to her credit, and she's consistent: Her work is always skillfully constructed and carefully plotted, and the characters are superb.
Her series detective, California PI Sharon McCone, has grown and developed over the years, but Muller has always had more on her mind than McCone. In Cape Perdido, she takes her favourite issues, particularly the destruction of the rural California environment, and weaves a stunning tale of betrayal.
The setting, always one of Muller's strong suits, is the little town of Cape Perdido. Once a lumber centre, now it's a getaway for tourists and outdoor recreationists. A North Carolina company has a plan to "harvest" Cape Perdido's water. It will bring jobs and money, but it will also destroy the area. Leading the fight to save Cape Perdido are Jesse Openshaw, an environmental activist, and his former girlfriend, Steph Pace, a local restaurateur. They are assisted by Jessie Domingo, a specialist from New York City. But the memories of lumber money are fresh, and a local lumberman, for his own reasons, sees the "waterbaggers" as friends.
The Rossiter File, by Thomas Rendell Curran, Breakwater, 341 pages, $19.95
Thomas Rendell Curran has followed up his brilliant debut novel, Undertow, with an even better second book. We're back in 1947 in St. John's, Nfld. Inspector Eric Stride, of the Newfoundland Constabulary, returns in a spellbinding story. This book makes wonderful use of Newfoundland history, turning it into a complex tale that will keep you glued to the page.
Inspector Stride likes to walk his beat in St. John's at night, and when he sees a loose tire careening down the street, ending up smashing a car, he's not pleased. He doesn't get the pair of roughnecks who rolled it, either. He's stopped by a dead body. The dead man was old, tired and apparently killed while he was taking a pee. Stride is moved as much by the sadness of the sight as the death. It appears at first that the tire-lads knocked the victim down a flight of stairs, but then the investigation takes a whole new turn.
As Stride searches for the mystery in the death of the man known as Samuel Rossiter, the hunt takes him back 30 years into a very different world from the place he knows so well. This is a beautifully written and researched book, which can be enjoyed as a historical work, a mystery or a plain good read.
Origin in Death, by J. D. Robb, Putnam, 339 pages, $35
Just in case you've been living on Mars for the past decade, J. D. Robb is the nom de plume of bestselling novelist Nora Roberts. I've lost count of her Nora Roberts numbers, but Origin in Death is her 23rd novel in the futuristic crime series featuring Lieutenant Eve Dallas, and it's as fresh as the earlier ones. It may be the setting -- New York, 2059 -- or talent honed by experience. In any event, it's got action, a great tight plot, a terrific descriptive setting and some fairly sweaty sex.
The plot is classic Robb. Death smiles and kisses a little girl. Cut to a murder in a high-priced medical clinic, one that specializes in cosmetic surgery for the extremely rich and very private. Will Icove was a brilliant doctor, so why did a woman stab him in the heart with a scalpel? A woman who looks as if she might have been one of Icove's finest jobs? Eve Dallas is still sorting out the possible angles when the same woman kills Icove's son, in a locked room.
The reason for these murders is a secret that, as Eve uncovers it, turns to a strain of pure evil. This is a plot that is firmly based in the present, with a 50-year tweak. Robb's imagination is at its best taking us into the middle of the 21st century, with all sorts of technological frippery, including android servants.
There is a subplot in which Roarke agonizes over Thanksgiving with his newly discovered Irish relatives. But like the sex, it doesn't get in the way of the plot.
The Perfect Paragon, by M. C.
Beaton, St. Martin's, 240 pages, $32.95
This is the latest perfectly precious prose problem from Beaton, Britain's successor to Dame Agatha Christie. If you've never read an Agatha Raisin novel, it's time to start, and you'll have 15 more of these confections awaiting you. Polish those off, and you still have a batch of Hamish Macbeth tales. All of them are cunningly plotted, beautifully written and more fun you can imagine. The Perfect Paragon is as perfect as all the others, and you won't figure out whodunit until the final pages.
Regular fans know that our Agatha has had some bad times lately. A romance or two has gone sadly awry, and there have been a couple of attempts on her life. One was a hired hit man, but the other was her seemingly devoted secretary. Needless to say, she's looking for cases that are a shade less close to home.
Along comes Mabel Smedley, the perfect wifely paragon, whose husband, the pompous and pretentious Robert, is convinced that Mabel is cheating. He hires Agatha to prove it. There's a murder (not Mabel) and then another, and Agatha finds herself chasing killers in the Cotswolds.
See Delphi and Die, by Lindsey
Davis, Random House, 301 pages, $38.95
Here's the latest in another long-running show, the stellar series set in ancient Rome and featuring Imperial investigator Marcus Didius Falco. It's funny and smart, and has all the charm of the early Falcos.
The setting this time is Greece. It seems that once the Romans have paved the roads, killed off the pirates and generally conquered the known world, they started to tour. Everyone is off to see the glories of the provinces, and Seven Sights Travel, a local agency, has just the trip for the family Falco. Their destination is Olympia, home of the ancient games, but en route, they learn that a couple of Romans have been murdered at the site, and the investigation has been cursory. Falco decides to conduct a hunt himself, which ends up pitting him and Helena against the powers of an absentee travel agent and a horde of angry and frightened tourists.
Davis, as usual, doesn't miss a trick or drag out a laugh. This is a funny book with a slick plot and enough twists for a bag of eels. There's a lot of life left in the Falcos.
Sons of Liberty, by Marie Jakober, Forge, 315 pages, $34.95
Who knew? An award-winning author of American Civil War novels was born, grew up and lives in Alberta. That's Marie Jakober, of Calgary, whose latest work, a Civil War espionage story, is set in Baltimore, Md., home of the crab cake and the cotillion. This is about as far as you can get from the Stampede.
It's the late summer and fall of 1862. Maryland has not seceded from the Union, and federal troops control Baltimore. But Maryland's landed aristocracy believe the Confederacy will triumph, and they live in hope that Lee's Army of Virginia will invade Maryland and free Baltimore. To that end, an underground group known as the Sons of Liberty is collecting volunteers and weapons.
Fending off the Sons is a German-American spymaster, Captain Branden Wolfe, a veteran of the 1848 revolution in Germany. Wolfe is a brilliant creation, and Jakober makes the most of him. Her blending of 1848 and 1862 is really good, and gives the novel plenty of scope.
That's the plus side. On the minus, Jakober's prose is somewhat pedestrian, and she repeats phrases until they're used up. Her command of Southern speech and habits wavers, and after keeping us reading for 200 pages, she lets the plot wiffle away. Still, as Civil War espionage stories go, this one is solidly researched and has lots of promise. The Black German and his friends seem poised for a return. We look forward to it.
A Cold-Blooded Scoundrel, by J. S. Cook, Brazen, 236 pages, $16.95
What would the summer be without a bloody Victorian mystery? Cook serves up a decently gory story with a gay detective on the trail of a vile and sadistic killer. It's not Jack the Ripper, although he murders prostitutes; this time, the victim is male. With Londoners still reeling from the Ripper murders, Scotland Yard wants this one caught quickly.
Detective Inspector Philip Devlin knows who the killer is. Scotland Yard even had him once, but his money and social position bought him freedom. Now he's returned to kill again, and Devlin can't find him.
Cook is the author of four novels, and is currently at work on a PhD at Memorial University. She's a solid researcher and has some great ideas, and she's not afraid to take on such touchy topics as Victorian gay sex.
Still, there's more to character development than sex and a stiff upper lip, and the villain here is just too villainous. Let's hope that Inspector Devlin makes a return with a worthier opponent.
DeKok and Murder by Melody, by A. C. Baantjer, Speck Press, 195 pages, $16.50
This is the first novel I've read by the most famous crime novelist in the Netherlands, and the publisher promises to translate two or three a year from now on. Baantjer, who was a detective-inspector with the Amsterdam police, brings all the depth and power of his 45 years of police work to a series in which death is, in his words, "entitled to respect."
That phrase marks the attitude of Inspector DeKok. He is never unmoved by death, and solving the puzzle of a murder is, for him, always a personal and enigmatic experience. Murder By Melody is set in the netherworld of junkies and their hangers-on. And there is music.
Baantjer sets us in place and lets the story move. There are touches of the 87th Precinct, Maigret and Janwillem van de Wetering, but Baantjer is in a category all his own.
Sofie Metropolis, by Tori Carrington, Forge, 284 pages, $29.95
This is a "What if?" book. What if we combined the wacky family humour of Janet Evanovich with My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and threw in some recipes? Doesn't that sound like a great combo?
That seems to be the design for Tori Carrington, who's really a husband-and-wife writing team named Lori and Tony Karayianni, who are regulars on the Harlequin and Silhouette romance road. Sofie Metropolis is a dog's breakfast of a book. With all the funny family members, weird scenes, nutty events and foodie chatter, there's hardly room for the plot, and what there is gets even further thinned by a nice little romance. Let's hope that Lori and Tony go back to romance.
Robert Ludlum's The Moscow Vector, by Patrick Larkin, St. Martin's, 416 pages, $22.95
This fat tome is the latest in the Covert-One series, which makes liberal use of the late Robert Ludlum's name. "Robert Ludlum's," "Series Created by Robert Ludlum" etc. The actual author is Patrick Larkin, and while he may be channelling Ludlum's spirit, he's not imbued with Ludlum's talent.
The plot, a muddy event concerning infectious diseases, has a U.S. Lieutenant-Colonel with secret information from a Moscow buddy about strange clusters of deaths in that city. Then there's the fast-acting, fast-spreading disease that's killing selected world leaders. Can it all be linked? Only in Larkin's fevered imagination.
Fans, take note. Robert Ludlum is DEAD. He is no longer linked to his keyboard. He did not write this book, or the ones that will surely follow.
The Tears of Autumn, by Charles McCarry, Overlook, 276 pages, $37.50
Charles McCarry, one of espionage fiction's finest, dusted off his brilliant group of agents in the recent Old Boys, and a new generation discovered their charms. But this book, the first novel featuring Paul Christopher, published in 1975, has long been out of print.
Now it's back, and the Young Boys are on the trail of the criminal mastermind who arranged the assassination of JFK. The plotline may seem dated, and there are no cellphones or computers, but this book maintains its suspense to the end.
Confessions of a Teen Sleuth, by Chelsea Cain, Bloomsbury, 160 pages, $15.95
Chelsea Cain calls her cute pink book "a parody" right on the cover. She goes on to tell us that Carolyn Keene was the nasty girl who stole Nancy Drew's personal stories when they were roommates at Bryn Mawr. Carolyn was the fat, dull one. Nancy was the smart, slim, redheaded one who was romanced by Ned Nickerson but who was really in love with Frank Hardy, of the detecting brother team.
Cain knows all the lingo, the sets and the sights of the golden age of teenaged crime fighters. Frank and Joe Hardy race about on their Indian Scout motorcycles. Nick and Nancy have their coupes and smart clothes and, of course, that purple prose that makes it all hang together. Not great, but cottage fun for those who loved Ms. Drew and the gang.