WHODUNIT?

REVIEWS BY BRUCE TIERNEY

Mystery of the Month

Let's say your life included a Ferrari, a seven-figure income, a pricey home in an exclusive suburb, a corner office in a prestigious law firm and a wife who could place well in the Miss America contest (albeit nowhere in the running for Miss Congeniality). Then a high-profile pro bono case gets thrown your way, and you must defend a hooker accused of murdering the son of a soon-to-be presidential candidate. Your firm wants to make the case go away: plead the defendant out and get on with life. Problem is, she says she's innocent, and there is compelling evidence, both physical and circumstantial, to support her claim. So then what do you do if your senior partner steps in and tells you to "throw the game," or there will be dire consequences? In Mark Gimenez's The Color of Law attorney Scott Fenney decides to take the moral high ground and aggressively pursue a "not guilty" verdict. Then he gets fired from his firm. His house note is called in (of course), as is the upside-down loan on his beloved Ferrari. Credit cards are summarily cancelled, as is his country club membership. Did I mention that his wife, fed up with her husband's commitment to the truth (insofar as it interferes with their lifestyle, at least) decides to take it on the lam with her golf-pro boyfriend?

The plot setup is as convoluted and intricate as anything in recent memory, an inverted morality tale that equals some of the best work of legal thriller writers Scott Turow, Lisa Scottoline or John Grisham. On top of that, it's Mark Gimenez's first book. Scott Tenney's career in The Color of Law has some parallels with the author's: Gimenez gave up a lucrative position in a Dallas law firm to start a solo practice that allowed him the time to write. If his first effort is any indication, it was an exceptionally shrewd decision.


Taken hostage by Gerritsen's latest

It would be hard to imagine a worse day than the one faced by Boston medical examiner Laura Isles: a corpse in a body bag opens its eyes, quite alive some hours after having been pronounced dead. The erstwhile deceased is shuttled quickly to a nearby hospital, where she rewards her saviors by relieving a security guard of his gun, coolly shooting him to death and then taking a host of hostages. FBI agent Gabriel Rizzoli knows only too well the dangers faced by the involuntary detainees, and the situation is worsened immeasurably with the discovery that his pregnant wife is among them. This, then, is the setup for Tess Gerritsen's taut new thriller, Vanish. Nowhere is the book more effective than in its brief but riveting first-person vignettes featuring a young refugee from Belarus known only as Mila, lured by dreams of life in America, then sold into sexual servitude by her so-called guides. Adroitly cutting back and forth among captor and captive, cop and reporter, Gerritsen spins a tale of high-stakes political intrigue, the horrors of modern-day slave trading and the duplicity of ostensibly upstanding citizens. No mere rehashing of SWAT team antics, Vanish takes the tried-and-true hostage tale to the next level.


Journey to Japan

Sujata Massey has entertained fans for several years with her tales of engaging Asian-American antique dealer Rei Shimura. The eighth installment, The Typhoon Lover, is sure to please aficionados of the series and bring new fans on board. Due to some shenanigans a few years back, Rei has been on the Japanese government's no-entry list. This situation has cramped the young businesswoman's style, particularly as she routinely deals in pricey Asian antiques. Rei is approached by a government agency to do a bit of surveillance work in Japan; no pay is involved, but her expenses will be covered and she will once again have free entry to Japan. It is an apple Rei is only too willing to bite. As you might imagine, there are one or two worms to be found in this particular fruit, and Rei will have to do some quick thinking, and even quicker talking, to avoid being killed by unscrupulous antiquities thieves. Meanwhile, back on the home front, Rei's engagement to Scottish lawyer Hugh Glendinning is foundering; Hugh's punk rocker brother has taken up brief residence in the Glendinning-Shimura digs, and tempers are short, to say the least. It helps to have read the previous Rei Shimura books, as there are several references to earlier situations, but that's nothing to be afraid of—this is a well-crafted and thoroughly enjoyable series.


Trouble in Tinseltown

Author Jeff Abbott, known to mystery enthusiasts for his series featuring rookie judge Whit Mosley, is back with a gripping stand-alone thriller, Panic. Successful indie filmmaker Evan Casher has the world by the tail. His last movie has given him the industry clout to pick and choose his projects. His days of peanut butter and day-old bread are well behind him; he has a beautiful girlfriend, a film devotee who hangs on his every word; in short, a near perfect life. It is all about to come crashing down in ways unforeseen by either the unwitting protagonist or the canniest of readers. For Evan Casher's life is a lie: his parents are not who he thinks they are (that is to say, they are hired assassins), and his girlfriend is simply a paid informant for a secret quasi-governmental organization. Early one morning, Casher receives a strange phone call from his mother, with an urgent request that he come to her house immediately. When he arrives, he finds her dead on the kitchen floor, the victim of a brutal murderer. Had Casher been a maker of horror films, he would have known to get his bad self out of the kitchen in record time; unfortunately, he hasn't the presence of mind to do that, and he very nearly joins his mother for a long nap. Quickly Casher realizes he must hone his survival skills, or he will be the next in a long line of victims of an agency nobody will admit exists. Pure escapist fantasy, Panic is a tightly wound and lightning-paced tale that just begs for a sequel.


© 2005 ProMotion, inc.
www@bookpage.com