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The Bible of Clay

Helen Francini

Two clay tablets containing an account of the world's creation dictated by Abraham himself drive this international suspense story. For years the tablets have been secretly owned by Alfred Tannenberg, an aged German archaeologist with a nasty past. On the eve of the second Iraq War, his headstrong granddaughter Clara, also an archaeologist, publicly reveals the existence of the tablets to plead for money and assistance in recovering more of these clay tablets before the war begins. This sets in motion Tannenberg's powerful enemies who will stop at nothing to wrest the tablets from his family, as well as a young Vatican priest on a mysterious mission to protect Clara.

Navarro's non-stop action keeps the pages turning straight through to the end, but her writing falls short in places. Too many characters get introduced too quickly at the beginning, five in the first chapter alone, with not enough information to distinguish between them. What is more, she has a tendency to explain who her characters are rather than letting characters' actions speak for themselves. And while a series of flashbacks to a Nazi concentration camp inspires genuine horror, another set of flashbacks in which Abraham speaks in modern idiom, yet recites the opening of Genesis 1 word for word in the King James version of the Bible, seems incongruous. For fans of religious suspense though, the biblical premise is tantalizing and the action unrelenting.

The Blue Religion

Stephen B. Armstrong

Cops figure prominently in each of the 19 stories Michael Connelly has selected for this collection. Instead of focusing at length on the professional aspects of police life, though, many of these tales examine the psyches of the men and women who wear the badge. As Connelly explains in his introduction: "While this tome and its individual stories will fall under the classification of police procedural, they are anything but explorations of procedure. They are explorations of life. They are explorations of character.?

Alafair Burke's "Winning,? for example, considers the ways in which a sexual assault affects a young female deputy's marriage. Violence and cruelty also surface in T. Jefferson Parker's particularly memorable "Skinhead Central,? which chronicles a retired cop's efforts to lead a young thug away from his unhealthy home life. As terse as Hemingway, Parker packs his narrative with details that are at once concrete and suggestive. Consider this description of the story's troubled protagonist: "Big kid, nineteen, tattoos all over his arms and calves, red hair buzzed short, and eyes the color of old ice.? In Peter Robinson's "The Price of Love,? in contrast, the author dramatizes a young boy's initiation into the world of law enforcement, while Connelly's "Father's Day? focuses on the sad death of a severely handicapped little boy.

Though action and investigation play a fairly small role in these stories, their emotional content is rich and rewarding. Many of these pieces, that is, rise to the level of literature. And for this reason, The Blue Religion is one of the most interesting and satisfying anthologies to appear this year.

The Body in the Gallery

Mary Elizabeth Devine

Convinced that a very valuable collage she and her husband bestowed to Aleford, Massachusetts' Ganley Museum, has been replaced by a fake, Patsy Avery convinces a reluctant Faith Fairchild to participate in a late night raid on the museum. Finding that the real collage has indeed been replaced, Patsy persuades Faith (a caterer) to help her by going undercover in the museum's food services department. All goes well until Faith comes in one morning and discovers a young woman curled up in a fish tank--dead. Against her husband's wishes, Faith becomes immersed in the search for the victim's identity and for her killer. She discovers a web of false names, adulterous affairs, and suicides.

At home, Faith faces another problem. Her usually amiable son, Ben, has become secretive and surly. When Faith and her husband finally confront him, they learn that Ben has been lured into cyber-bullying. Readers will enjoy Faith and her son, Ben. Both are well-crafted characters: she is torn between her catering and her responsibilities as a wife and mother; and Ben is torn between loyalty to a childhood friend and the lure of being with the cool kids.

Though the plot is a bit slow to start, it moves quickly once the victim is found. There is also an meticulously created small town Massachusetts sense of place, right down to that issue which dominates every Town Meeting--the budget? No--a law about whether dogs must be tethered. One last caveat; don't read this book on an empty stomach--there are many drool inducing recipes.

The Cruelest Month

Jackie Houchin

Can a person literally be scared to death? That's the question Chief Inspector Gamache asks when a woman is found dead following a seance in the idyllic town of Three Pines.

Madeleine Favreau brought sunshine and joy wherever she went. Everyone loved her--and everyone also had a motive to kill her. When a witch agrees to hold a seance in an old haunted house, the perfect opportunity for murder presents itself. The means however, is not so obvious. When Gamache arrives, he has more than one mystery to solve. He must search among the town's charming inhabitants for an unlikely killer, and he must search among his own team of officers for a traitor who wishes to bring him down. Slowly and carefully, like separating pages in a water sodden book, Gamache peels away the layers of lies and secrets until his investigation yields the killer and the Judas.

Penny's dense, descriptive writing grows slowly like an addiction that leaves you wanting more. She can write in a few pages what others take chapters to tell, setting the place so thoroughly you believe you've lived there all your life. Her characters are unique and fresh, and will linger long in readers' minds. The death does not occur until chapter eight and some readers might be tempted to skim, but resist. Each tiny piece of the plot has importance and will come together in a truly gratifying conclusion. After reading the final page, The Cruelest Month will be one you'll want to go back and savor again.

The Dark Lantern

Irma Cede±o

In late 19th-century London, the idyllic Bentley household is not what it seems. Robert Bentley has returned from Paris, accompanied by his precious wife, Mina, to settle at his mother's deathbed. But Mina is eager to leave London, afraid her dark past will catch up to her. Lady Bentley is not the only one wishing to escape; Jane, the orphan maid she has hired to help her spy on the other servants (and who might also be spying on her) is also on the run.

Gerri Brightwell masterfully crafts the lives of Victorian servants and masters. From the glamour of the upstairs bedrooms to the downstairs premises of the over-indulged servants, The Dark Lantern is told from the perspectives of its two clashing social classes: the servants', who spend their entire lives in their employers' shadows; and the masters', who do as they please but who have plenty of reasons to lock their drawers.

In this atmospheric thriller everyone has a secret, and the only way to protect one's own is by exploiting another's. Chapter by chapter, Brightwell reveals successive new pieces to her puzzle. And although these characters are far from angels, readers might still find themselves wishing to protect them. Everything is at stake: the Bentley's perfect marriage, the family's money, the servants' future, and freedom itself. Suspenseful and intriguing, The Dark Lantern will keep you guessing.

The Devils of Bakersfield

Jan Costin Wagner

At the tail end of a father-daughter road trip embarked upon so that they could bond and discuss her nascent pregnancy, private investigator Jack Liffey and his feisty daughter Maeve pull off the road in Bakersfield, California for the night. Deciding to take a midnight stroll, Maeve is picked up by an overzealous policeman and thrown in jail with another contrary teen who answers to the unlikely name of Toxie.

Claimed by her worried father, Maeve travels back to Los Angeles with him, only to return days later to check on her still incarcerated new friend. Unfortunately, she arrives in Bakersfield just as a long festering religious mania explodes, placing her and anyone the tightly-wound leaders of the town brand dangerous at risk. Long accustomed to comforting the parents of missing children, Liffey learns about the anxiety and heartbreak they experience firsthand.

Shannon portrays Bakersfield as a hotbed of lunacy--although the events he describes might seem extreme to some, he goes to great lengths to demonstrate that it can, and in fact has, happened in Bakersfield before (some may remember the town as the epicenter for children with "recovered? memories--later deemed false--of outrageous abuse). Readers who accept this scenario of fundamentalist fervor will find this a gripping and suspenseful read; those who don't might be disappointed. It's obvious that Shannon trusts his readers, though. He provides alternate endings to the novel then invites readers to vote for the conclusion they prefer at his website.

The Genius

Barbara Fister

Ethan Muller confesses to us right up front: he's no detective. He's an art dealer whose attention is drawn to boxes of extraordinary drawings found in a dreary apartment block belonging to his estranged father. The artist, Victor Cracke, has disappeared, but has left behind hundreds of journals, relating the details of an unremarkable life--and boxes filled with thousands of sheets of paper that, placed side-by-side in the right order, become a vast and complicated map of the missing man's inner world. The dealer has, in fact, discovered an enormously important masterwork; and though he makes a cursory effort to locate the artist, it's the art that matters.

Except to a retired and seriously ill detective, who has a reason to find the missing Cracke. He recognizes one of the faces in the vast map of the artist's imaginary realm as belonging to a child whose murder he investigated unsuccessfully decades ago. An unlikely partnership is born.

Just as the narrator is not a detective, the story is not formulaic, exploring and departing from the expectations of the genre in an exuberantly creative way. Kellerman's story, possibly inspired by the work of the outsider artist Henry Darger, is daringly structured; present-day intrigue is narrated in the past tense, while past interludes into Muller's family history are narrated in the present tense. The plot is at times a little strained, but the richness of the characters, Muller's narrative voice, the depiction of an eccentric artist and his imaginative vision of the world, and the sheer audacity of the book's playful structure, make it an unusual and rewarding read.

The Headhunters

Joseph Scarpato Jr.

You can always count on Peter Lovesey, one of England's most respected mystery writers, to come up with a rollicking good detective yarn. And this second outing for Inspector Hen Mallin of the Chichester CID is no exception.

When Jo Stevens goes out on a bowling double date with her friend Gemma, little does she know that the four of them will soon become ensnared in a puzzling series of murders. A few days after the date, while strolling along the beach, Jo discovers the body of a woman washed up on the shore. Jo feels like she is a suspect after a particularly harsh grilling by Inspector Mallin, so when she and Gemma come across another drowned woman, (this one a co-worker of Gemma's), they decide not to be the ones to notify the police.

Soon Jake, one of the double daters, becomes the prime suspect though, and Jo and Gemma are determined to find the real murderer. But as the body count increases, Jo's meddling could make her the next victim. If you like a classic British mystery that keeps you guessing and moves quickly to a conclusion, you'll thoroughly enjoy The Headhunters.

The Mark of the Pasha

Michael Pearce

Michael Pearce's early 20th century Cairo tales recreate an exotic setting with characters and situations that illuminate cultures and conflicts that persist to this day. In his 16th Mamur Zapt mystery, The Mark of the Pasha, World War I is over and there is unrest in Egypt. However the British are focused on the meeting of the Great Powers at Versailles, not on Egypt--which leaves the Khedive feeling slighted.

When the Khedive feels challenged by rivals for his power, he decides he wants a parade. But the streets have become unsafe and it is up to Gareth Cadwallader Owen, the Mamur Zapt (head of the secret police), to protect his boss and visiting British officials from a possible bomb plot. He uses all his contacts--Coptic, Arab, Greek, and others--to figure out what is going on.

Pearce's engaging characters and humorous descriptions are unforgettable. Owen's bride Zeinab, the daughter of Nuri Pasha, is also engaging as a hospital administrator fighting for women's rights-- not so easy in Cairo at that time! If you haven't yet read this series, don't delay.

The Night Following

Betty Webb

What would happen if, within minutes of discovering your husband's infidelity, you ran down and killed a woman on a bicycle, then left the scene of the crime?According to Morag Joss' tragic novel, you might succumb to a guilt so extreme that it consumes you. And in order to ease that burden of guilt, you might commit an act almost as terrible as the original hit-and-run--an attempt to take the dead woman's place.

The Night Following presents a deep psychological study of two heartbroken people wounded by their inability to let go of their memories, even when those memories threaten to destroy them. This descent into shared madness never ceases to enthrall, and is further heightened by the book's unusual structure. Told mainly in the first-person by the distraught hit-and-run driver, we also learn about the widower's life via the letters he writes to his dead wife in a failed exercise meant to assuage his grief. But perhaps most sorrowful of all--because it makes the dead seem alive--we explore the victim's life through the pages of a novel she'd finished mere hours before being struck down.

For a less accomplished writer, such narrative complexity could prove an overwhelming task, but Scottish-born Joss, winner of the Crime Writer's Association's prestigious Silver Dagger Award, pulls it off with her usual expertise. With delicacy and superb prose, she explores the deadly intersection of three moral--and mortal--souls.

The Paper Moon

Jackie Houchin

Paper Moon is the ninth installment in Andrea Camilleri's Sicilian detective series starring the sometimes-grumpy but always relentless Inspector Montalbano. Plagued by doubts about his mortality and the signs of aging, Montalbano nevertheless takes on the case of Angelo Pardo, a pharmaceutical salesman who is reported missing by his lovely sister, and then found shot dead in his home with his privates exposed. It could be a suicide or the result of a lovers' quarrel, but the Inspector is convinced it's murder.

As he investigates the details of Pardo's life--with the thoroughness of a Poirot or Holmes--he discovers many motives, including jealousy, drugs, politics and revenge. His two chief suspects turn out to be the lovely sister, and a gorgeous mistress, both of whom try to divert Montalbano's attention by seducing him. But it will take more than a pasta lunch and a stroll along the beach to throw Montalbano from the trail. With help from his experts and underlings--and some bending of the rules--the killer will be uncovered.

Camilleri sets the standard for concise writing. He uses few words, and yet the dialogue and narrative flow naturally. His characters are delightful, eccentric and amusing. He can paint their personalities using only speech patterns and habits. His subtle humor makes the book fun to read. Paper Moon is translated from the original Italian, and the handy glossary in the back will help readers with the occasional idiom or bit of history.

The Reavers

Mary Helen Becker

The late George MacDonald Fraser has left his fans an uproarious spoof of an Elizabethan adventure novel. Though better known for his 12 Flashman tales, Fraser wrote several standalone comic novels, of which The Reavers is one.

Fraser's tale opens with the accidental killing of a reaver by Archie Noble, (actually secret agent Double Nought Noble), who works for spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham of Queen Elizabeth's court. For those unfamiliar, reavers (reivers) are Scottish raiders who troll the Scottish borders. Between the accidental killing and reaver jewel heists, the story soon reveals a fiendish enemy plot to replace the heir to the throne, James VI of Scotland, with a Spanish impersonator. Noble, along with the gorgeous Lady Godiva Dacres, her school chum Kylie Delishe, and a Scottish brigand named Gilderoy, scramble to save the kingdom against an improbable group of opponents including the bent priest Frey Bentos and his stooge (a dwarf kidnapped from the Amazon).

Fraser tells readers that his tale is an American co-production, and indeed it seems a bit like a rambling movie treatment for a Monty Python-Mel Brooks collaboration. Much of the humor is in the writing's brilliant mixture of contemporary slang, Scottish dialect, and faux Elizabethan English. Reader's are warned by the author that this story is "nonsense," but it is nonsense that few others could concoct.

The Silver Swan

Barbara Fister

There's no doubt Benjamin Black, the crime-writing alter ego of John Banville, has a way with words. Throughout this follow-up to Christine Falls (which should be read first in order to avoid spoilers), the descriptive language has the beauty and clarity of Waterford crystal. Black examines the character's inner lives with insight into human nature that the characters themselves lack.

The plot is simple. A woman is found drowned. Her grieving husband asks Quirk, an old school friend who now works as a pathologist, to forgo an autopsy; he can't bear the thought of his lovely wife being cut open. Quirk agrees, after all, what's the harm of a suicide being ruled accidental death? But when Quirk notices a hypodermic puncture in the dead woman's arm, he realizes there's more going on. Why he decides to investigate it by himself, rather ineptly, is never thoroughly explained, but it's consistent with the book's theme of hidden lives and thwarted desires. The claustrophobic, suppressed nature of Irish society in the mid-1950s is brilliantly depicted, its gray dreariness wrapped in gorgeous words.

Much of the story is told in flashback from the point of view of the dead woman. Other perspectives are provided by her business partner and his wife, who have developed a strange relationship with an exotic "spiritual healer.? Drug addiction, pornography, and frustrated longing all play a role as the characters' paths randomly cross those of Quirk and his daughter. Ultimately, there's not much of a traditional mystery here, Black's emphasis is on existential ones.

The Unraveling of Violeta Bell

Lynne Maxwell

Morgue Mama Maddy Sprowls returns in The Unraveling of Violeta Bell, the third mystery in this highly entertaining series by C.R. Corwin. Lest you immediately dismiss these books as being too macabre because they focus on the funereal, let me assure you that the "morgue" in this instance is really the archives of a newspaper, and Maddy its resident librarian. This bookish setting, however, does not shield Maddy from the ravages of murder. In fact, her affiliation with a small-town Ohio newspaper only enhances her propensity for delving into murder cases. This talent is called into play when Violeta Bell, one of the seemingly innocuous elderly women featured in a newspaper article, is brutally slain. The plot features among other things, Romanian royalty, a sex change operation, and a new love interest for Maddy. You'll have to read the book to discover how these elements dovetail.

Considering that Ohioan C.R. Corwin is a man, he does a superb job of portraying a woman of a certain age. Maddy's independence, spark, initiative, and humor shine through in this witty depiction of small-town reporting. Maddy is sarcastic, and you will find yourself laughing aloud at her repartee. The Morgue Mama series, and The Unraveling of Violeta Bell in particular, is a lively addition to the cozy genre. You'll want to bury yourself in this series ASAP.

Waterloo Sunset

Barbara Fister

Liverpool lawyer Harry Devlin is disconcerted to receive a black-bordered notice of his own forthcoming death on midsummer's eve. He has only a few days to find out if it's a prank or a prediction. As the day nears, he receives small reminders--anonymous phone messages, his computer calendar reset to the fatal day, his office trashed. Things take an ominous turn for the worse when his partner is attacked and left for dead in the firm's parking lot. And, as if that weren't enough to worry about, someone is killing and mutilating young women around the city, including one who worked in Harry's office and asked to meet him the night she died. Harry can't help but become involved--especially once he's become a suspect.

Edwards handles a complex plot and a vivid cast of characters with a sure hand. A veteran of the genre, having twice made the shortlist for a CWA Dagger, Edwards mixes humor and suspense to good effect, building to an over-the-top denouement. Though this is the eighth book in the Harry Devlin series, a reader unfamiliar with the previous entries won't be lost; just pleased to have found an entertaining series to catch up on.

Wicked City

Hank Wagner

Once branded "The Wickedest City in America" by Look magazine, Phenix City, Alabama, is nothing less than a modern day Sodom--the entrenched crime and corruption are practically a tradition after so many decades of depravity. The law-abiding citizens of Phenix have often tried to turn things around, but to no avail. They are given hope, however, by the unexpected victory of the crusading Albert Patterson in the race for Attorney General.

That hope is seemingly crushed when Patterson is assassinated by the Phenix City Syndicate. But, Patterson's brutal murder instead galvanizes a few good men to take action. Led by Patterson's son, John, and by former service station attendant turned Sheriff, Lamar Montgomery, the decent folk of Phenix City continue the fight, this time vowing to take the criminal element down forever.

Despite its southern setting, Wicked City, a gritty, unrelenting tale of crime and punishment, cowardice and courage, and most importantly, sin and redemption, has more in common with a classic Western than a crime novel. That's not a criticism, incidentally, merely an observation--the basic thrust of the novel, staunch heroes facing seemingly insurmountable odds, has driven thousands of tales over the centuries.

Readers experience the depravity of Phenix up close, creating strong empathy with Atkins' intrepid band of heroes. Reminiscent too of the myriad tales of Elliot Ness' Untouchables, Wicked City is a winning update on a classic mode of storytelling, notable for both its brutality and its humanity.

Winter Study

Betty Webb

Park Ranger Anna Pigeon returns in this atmospheric mystery set during mid-winter on Isle Royale, a national park located in the far northwest corner of Lake Superior. While overseeing an ongoing moose/wolf population study, Anna finds herself drawn into the personal and professional dramas of the scientists conducting the work. Their concerns about the odd behavior of the island's wolf packs have increased under the specter of Homeland Security, which plans to use the island for its own purposes.

As always in her Anna Pigeon novels, Barr places setting up front and center, reminding us that nature's wild beauty is tempered by danger. Isle Royale , a tourist haven in the summers but closed to everyone except rangers and scientists during its sub-zero winters, is a place where a short walk to a storage shed could result in frostbite, and a stumble off a trail can lead to a lonely, frigid death. Breathtaking, too, are the park's magnificent wolf packs, and the Native American legend of the Windigo, a creature that eats human flesh.

While the frozen bodies pile up in Winter Study, Barr never allows the reader to forget the island's sheer isolation and the threat that isolation imposes on its inhabitants, both human and otherwise. In the end, wolves and Windigo notwithstanding, Isle Royale's true villain will make your skin crawl.

Wit's End

Lynne Maxwell

Karen Joy Fowler has produced an elegant surprise in Wit's End for mystery lovers. Made famous for her bestseller, The Jane Austen Book Club, Fowler has written a crossover literary novel that incorporates elements of mystery, with a nod toward the paranormal as well. The story focuses upon Rima, a young woman from Cleveland who is bereft after the death of her beloved brother. In order to heal, she visits Santa Cruz, California, to stay with her godmother in a house by the sea. Rima's godmother happens to be A.E. Early, an acclaimed mystery novelist who is herself quite mysterious. While Rima explores her family's past, she attempts to make sense of Early's role in her father's life.

Also figuring prominently in Wit's End is Early's fictional detective, Maxwell Lane, who somehow manages to become a real presence for Rima and his other fans. Lane's appearances in the novel are such that it is impossible to tell whether he is an actual person, a fictional character, a ghost, or all of the above. Fowler creates layer upon layer of realities, as the work of her fictional novelist, Early, parallels Fowler's own play upon words and worlds. Thus fiction and reality intertwine, with elements of the supernatural and the real, to create an astonishing amalgam of narratives. Wit's End is as easy and pleasant a read as much genre fiction, but delivers its mystery in the form of a provocative, metafictional masterpiece.

Yellow Medicine

Mary Welk

Billy Lafitte has a history of making bad decisions. Those he made as a policeman in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina cost him both his job and his wife. Now working as a deputy in Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota, his fondness for Drew, a local meth lab operator's girlfriend, has him once again bending the law to suit his own purposes. When Drew asks him for help after two Asian drug dealers threaten her boyfriend, Billy finds he's in way over his head. As the body count mounts and with the FBI hot on his trail, Billy tries to protect the girl he's come to care for, while making sense of a complicated drug deal gone wrong.

In Yellow Medicine, Anthony Neil Smith delves into the psyche of a man driven by an outside-the-law concept of right and wrong. Billy is more anti-hero than good guy, with only his devotion to Drew as a saving grace. The plot has a noir feel to it that's heightened by the bleak winter setting, tough characters, and unrelenting suspense. Compelling writing drives this story to a satisfying, if bloody, conclusion.

A Darker Side

Beverly J. DeWeese

DCI Max Trentham and forensic pathologist Jill Kennedy (formerly lovers) reluctantly team up to investigate the death of the teenager, Martin Hayden. Max soon senses there is something very secretive and odd about Martin's family, so he needs Jill's expertise. And, in fact, the investigation soon reveals that Martin was actually a cold, manipulative schemer that many might have reason to murder. But why is no one in Martin's family admitting this? Do they not know their own child?

Jill and Max are smart, sympathetic protagonists, and their rocky personal relationship is just as interesting and believable as the murder investigation. In contrast to the dysfunctional Hayden family, both Jill and Max have good family lives, filled with parents, Max's children, and charming pets. So the mystery has a cozy feel. Yet Wells has also created some very poignant characters in the Hayden family. The mother has a sad, horrific background that she has never talked about. The angry husband and browbeaten wife have grown apart, and even Martin's brother and sister know something is very wrong, but they aren't sure what it is. As family secrets and Martin's "darker side" are uncovered, the situation becomes even worse.

This is a competently constructed mystery, with some surprising twists, though the major emphasis is on the psychology of the characters rather than on plot complexity. A pleasant read.

A Fatal Waltz

Helen Francini

The term "shooting party" takes on an extra dimension when a top political advisor to Queen Victoria is murdered at a gathering at a Yorkshire estate. The lively young widow Lady Emily Ashton travels from England to Vienna and back to track down the true culprit and clear her friend's husband of the crime. Along the way, an international selection of politicians and royal society, a Viennese anarchist, a loving but disapproving mother, and her betrothed's jealous ex-mistress, all provide challenges to which Emily must rise.

Strongly intellectual, Emily has the audacity to be passionately interested in the Classics (and therefore an unusual late Victorian heroine). She discourses on Greek pottery, recounts the plot of Aristophanes' The Frogs, and faces down a government spy with equal aplomb. Although Emily's friend Margaret, a Bryn Mawr College graduate now at Oxford, arrives late on the scene, the friendship between the two women is strong and her letters to Emily are a joy.

The locations in this whodunit are as full of character and atmosphere as the people. The opulence of the country estate in the opening sequence only enhances the menace and intrigue that take place there. From rich settings to historical events like the Crown Prince Rudolph's shocking death at Mayerling, Alexander skillfully captures the spirit of Vienna in the early 1890s in a novel within a novel that is part Jane Austen, part Sherlock Holmes, and all great mystery.

Black Out

Dianne Day

In her first standalone thriller, following the success of Beautiful Lies and Sliver of Truth, Lisa Unger scores a knockout with Black Out.

Annie Hill is not really Annie Hill, and she knows it. She's married to Gray and mother to little Victory, whose upbeat name was carefully chosen. But Gray is not Victory's dad, and Victory's origin was anything but upbeat. They live in the idyllic semi-isolation of the very rich on Florida's Gulf Coast, under the shadow of Drew, Gray's father (and employer), a Special Forces retiree who has created a privatized military organization under the guise of a large-scale insurance investigation company. These people are worse than scary, they're terrifying, and they are manipulating Annie's life more than she knows. Gradually, Annie begins to sort out what is real from what is not. She must battle with demons from her own abused childhood and her abduction by a serial killer she thought was in love with her. She must find reality in order to save herself, her daughter, and her marriage to Gray, who is almost as much in thrall to his father as she was to her psychopath.

Lisa Unger writes with almost unbearable intensity and skill, always from Annie's point of view. She takes us nonstop through dreams, fugues, hallucinations, past and present. It's one hell of a ride, and a rewarding read.

Blackman's Coffin

Jackie Houchin

Days before being discharged from the Veteran's Hospital in Asheville NC, Chief Warrant Officer Sam Blackman is visited by ex-Marine and fellow amputee Takima Robertson who challenges him to stop feeling sorry for himself and get on with his life.

She suggests there might be a job waiting for him outside, where he can use his Criminal Investigation skills, but when Takima doesn't return as promised, Sam calls the number on her business card and learns she's been murdered.

Nakayla Robertson identifies Sam at her sister's funeral and brings him a book that Takima wanted him to read. It's a journal, written in 1919 by a 12-year-old boy who questions the sudden disappearance of the black worker who saved his life. That man was Elijah Robertson, the sisters' great-great grandfather.

Nakayla believes Takima's and Elijah's murders are connected and convinces Sam to help her discover the truth. Their amateur investigation into the histories of Asheville, the wealthy Vanderbilt's and the literary giant, Thomas Wolfe, riles more than just the local police. Someone's carefully hidden secret is about to be exposed and the killer will do anything to prevent it.

Blackman's Coffin is a fascinating whodunit mystery, with a complex puzzle that will please both detective fans and history buffs. The old journal entries move readers smoothly from the past to the present action, and a treasure hunt keeps the excitement high.

De Castrique's realistic depiction of the difficulties amputees must overcome--without resorting to the maudlin--will win the respect of readers, and his concise but entertaining style will bring them back for more.

Buried Too Deep

Mary Elizabeth Devine

Twins Aurelia and Lucius and their sister Albia managed to escape Pompeii, Italy, before Vesuvius did its worst. They have come to new lives in Britain--Aurelia, the proprietor of an inn 16 miles from York; Lucius an aide to the provincial governor; Albia the wife of a farmer and the mother of two children.

All is not peaceful, however. They find themselves in the middle of a vicious rivalry between two wealthy landowners, Osterius and Bodvocos. Two words mark the center of contention: greed and gold. Local legend has it that the twins' father buried gold on the farm where Albia now lives. Both Osterius and Bodvocos will do anything, including murder, to unearth it. Soon Osterius is found murdered in his bathtub. To get to the bottom of the rivalry, Aurelia and her lover Quintus, search for the murderer and find themselves in a world of conspiracy and random violence.

Finnis excels at creating a world ruled by savagery and immorality. Pirates raid by sea, other thugs raid by land, and everyone is susceptible to their incursions. The plot is harrowing, forcing readers to wonder what acts of cruelty will be committed next. The most vivid characters are the three central women--Aurelia, a proto-feminist, utterly aggressive in pursuit of the killer; Albia, tenacious in protecting her family; and Niobe, Osterius' concubine, a slave who has risen to become mistress of the household.

What must it have been like to live in a world with water so polluted that the only drink was wine--morning, noon, and night? Finnis captures just such a world--one where few ever drew a sober breath.

Careless in Red

Beverly J. DeWeese

DS Thomas Lynley, absolutely devastated by the death of his pregnant wife, has left Scotland Yard and gone on a six-week walkabout along the coast of Cornwall. When he stumbles across the body of a young man, he surfaces from his depression long enough to break into a nearby cottage, owned by a Dr.Trahair, and report it to the local police.

DI Bea Hannaford, a no-nonsense woman with spiky red hair, doesn't trust this Lynley, who looks like a bum and a likely suspect. Soon enough however, she enlists him to help solve the murder of the victim, an employee at a local family-run "activities resort."

But that's just the beginning of this labyrinthine story with its numerous subplots that include the very secretive life of the attractive Doctor Trahair, the dysfunctional family politics of the resort owners, and an ancient murder that almost everyone has forgotten. Add to this characters from Cornwall's surfing subculture with their own family issues, and there is no shortage of motives or secrets. No less than six complex, difficult parent-child relationships are at the core of this story, which is as much about family relationships as it is about murder.

Unlike earlier books in the series, Lynley is somewhat of a secondary character here, and DI Hannaford is definitely in charge. She's separated from her husband, raising a teenage boy on her own, and takes no guff from anyone--especially Lynley. The addition of Hannaford, along with a fascinating (if leisurely) plot, intriguing characters, an unusual surfing and rock climbing background, and some fine writing, makes this 15th in the series a true pleasure.

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