Politically incorrect humor

REVIEWS BY BRUCE TIERNEY

Kinky Friedman's latest adventure featuring NYC private eye Kinky Friedman (no relation) is The Prisoner of Vandam Street, which finds the cheeky sleuth bedridden in his Greenwich Village loft, suffering from plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest form of malaria. Confined to quarters for six weeks, Kinky plays unwilling host to a horde of would-be caregivers, a merry group of pranksters known as the Village Irregulars. In a brief moment of respite, when all his well-meaning friends have vanished, Kinky sits at the window and ogles an attractive young woman in the apartment across the street. His ardor turns to horror as a man abruptly enters the picture and launches a brutal attack on the young woman. Kinky immediately calls the police, but upon investigation, they discover no sign of the victim, nor, for that matter, of an apartment across the street. Hmm. There is nary a witness in sight, and the suspicion mounts that Kinky was in the grip of a fever dream. Shades of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, albeit with a bizarro factor never dreamed of by the master of suspense. Kinky Friedman (the author) is, without a doubt, the most audacious, iconoclastic and politically incorrect of modern detective writers, a laugh riot to brighten up a rainy March afternoon.


Shadows of evil

Best known for his mystery novels featuring the gloomy and introspective private investigator Charlie Parker, author John Connolly branches further out into the supernatural with his latest, Bad Men. Skillfully cutting back and forth across three centuries, Connolly spins a tale of murder, betrayal and intrigue on a small island off the coast of Maine. Petite rookie officer Sharon Macy has accepted an assignment to Dutch Island. The resident cop, Melancholy Joe Dupree, is a brooding seven-foot giant deserving of his nickname. Macy has only cursory knowledge of the bloody history of Dutch Island, but Dupree is all too familiar with the closely held secrets and superstitions that have permeated every cranny of island life for generations. Together this unlikely duo will form the only obstacle to a malevolent band of killers bent on avenging a 300-year-old score. Connolly is in a class by himself when it comes to escalating tension; his pacing is relentless and his insight into the darker side of life is uncanny. With each succeeding novel, Connolly comes closer to bridging the gap between, say, Robert B. Parker and Stephen King, offering compelling real world mysteries shadowed with timeless evil.


Mystery of the month

The March 2004 Tip of the Ice Pick Award goes to Boston author Linda Barnes for her excellent new novel Deep Pockets. Private investigator Carlotta Carlyle plies her trade in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Fresh from her exploits in 2002's The Big Dig (referring to the seemingly endless subway construction project that has paralyzed downtown Boston for years), the zaftig (6'1") Carlyle takes on the task of unearthing the blackmailer who threatens a Harvard professor. It seems that the professor, a married man, has been carrying on with one of his students. The affair had about run its course when the girl turned up dead, burned so badly in a boathouse fire that she could be identified only by dental records. The prof is saddened, naturally, but in a larger sense relieved. Then the first blackmail note arrives, attached to one of several love letters that passed between the academician and his paramour. That would be bad enough, in the grand scheme of things, but it gets worse. The blackmailer is killed in a hit-and-run accident, run over by the professor's car. In quick succession, probable cause is established, an alibi is called into question and the professor is arrested. As might be expected, he claims innocence, and it falls to Carlotta to uncover some shred of evidence to support this. Fans of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series will enjoy the works of Linda Barnes; Carlotta and Stephanie are twin daughters of different parents. Carlotta is the more serious of the two, less quirky and eclectic, but similarly insightful, particularly about the seamier side of life. Lifelike characters, great sense of location and page-turning suspense are among Barnes' many strengths as a writer. (P.S. Don't look at the last page; there is a cute surprise in store!)


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