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WHODUNIT?
REVIEWS BY BRUCE TIERNEY
Welcome to Santa Teresa, California, where private investigator Kinsey Millhone plies her trade. The time is the mid-1980s, and Millhone drives a perpetually rundown Volkswagen. The somewhat vintage seting means Millhone is without the conveniences we take for granted nowadays: Internet, cell phones, GPS systems and the like. Beginning with 1983's A is For Alibi, Millhone has solved 19 mysteries thus far. The latest, S Is for Silence, is a bit of a departure, both for the protagonist and for the author. Millhone is retained to solve the disappearance of a woman some 35 years back, a cold case if ever there was one. Author Sue Grafton steps out of her usual first-person narrative to juxtapose third-person flashbacks to the 1950s, a risky technique, but one she pulls off nicely. Tensions escalate exponentially as Millhone unearths long-buried clues, clues that may threaten some wealthy and powerful Santa Teresa businessmen. S Is for Silence will be a huge hit with Grafton fans; indeed, it is a huge hit by any measure. The first printing is a staggering one million copies, and the book is a Literary Guild, Book-of-the-Month Club and Mystery Guild main selection.
By Sue Grafton Putnam, $26.95 384 pages ISBN 0399152970 
An explosive new thriller
The beginning of P.T. Deutermann's The Cat Dancers is one of the most gripping openers in recent memory. Suspended from a thin nylon rope several hundred feet above the ground, a daredevil photographer swings toward the face of a cliff, intent on taking face-to-face pictures of a North Carolina mountain lion in its lair. For folks with a fear of heights or wild animals, this is the stuff of which nightmares are made. Meanwhile, a couple of bungling slackers are in the process of ripping off a convenience store when things start to go to hell in a handbasket: the South Asian store owner has a gun, which he starts firing enthusiastically (if not accurately), and in seconds the gas pumps are hit, exploding into a fireball of epic proportions. Several innocents are killed, but the two moronic crooks escape—briefly. Later that evening, the cops take them down, but in the excitement, their Miranda rights are neglected, and a liberal judge cuts them loose without charges. In a matter of days, vigilante justice is applied: one of the two is electrocuted in a homemade electric chair, and the police receive an e-mailed video of the execution. The voiceover says, simply: "That's one." Intricately, these disparate storylines are woven together, offering one of the most original and intense mysteries of the year.
By P.T. Deutermann St. Martin's, $24.95 352 pages ISBN 0312333773
Retired New York City cop Vincent Repetto is ready to enjoy the perks of his new life. Married to a wealthy designer, Repetto can afford the sorts of luxuries other police retirees can only dream of: a large Manhattan apartment, Cuban cigars, an endless succession of fine dinners and Broadway shows. However, a serial killer is on the loose on the streets of the Big Apple, and he has Repetto in his sights, not as a potential victim (as far as we know), but as a worthy adversary. He wants Repetto to try to take him down. Repetto wants no part of this; he is quite happy (deliriously happy, in fact) with his leisurely pursuits. So, in a move guaranteed to ensure compliance, the killer strikes close to home, killing Repetto's future son-in-law while Repetto watches helplessly. Fear the Night, the latest in a long line of slick thrillers from veteran author John Lutz, is a tense, fast-moving novel, a plot-driven page-turner of the first order. That said, the characters are well drawn, multifaceted and sympathetic (even, to some degree, the bad guy). Best of all, Fear the Night has been released in mass-market paperback—at $6.99, this great read is the suspense steal of the season!
By John Lutz Pinnacle, $6.99 479 pages ISBN 0786016345
This month's Tip of the Ice Pick goes to English author John Harvey for his brilliantly rendered Ash & Bone, the follow-up novel to 2004's Silver Dagger award-winning Flesh & Blood. Both feature retired Nottingham police detective Frank Elder, a battered survivor of years on the force, a broken marriage and strained relationships with his daughter and ex-colleagues. For most of his married life, Elder's behavior vis-à-vis other women was exemplary. His single slip was with a fellow police officer, Maddy Birch, with whom he shared a one-time-only hurried encounter in a dark doorway years ago. Their paths never crossed again, but she continued to occupy a place in his memory, disturbing him in ways he had not dealt with before. Maddy, for her part, had since been married (badly), then involved in a series of less than fulfilling passing relationships. Of late, she seemed to be off men entirely. Her police career has moved forward dramatically, though: as Ash & Bone opens, she is the point person in a daring attempt to take down a major crime figure, with force if necessary. When the smoke clears, one cop lies dead, and the crook as well. Perhaps the shooting of the criminal was a bit hasty, though, not entirely kosher. Maddy is the only one who could say definitively, and though she reveals little to the investigating board, the other cops in the takedown were more than a little concerned about what she might say under duress, if the investigating board began to tighten the screws. Thus, it's not very surprising to the reader when Maddy is murdered, and Frank Elder is summoned out of retirement to lead the investigation into her death. From this somewhat formulaic beginning, Harvey weaves a suspenseful police procedural that will be immensely satisfying to fans of Ian Rankin, Ruth Rendell and Reginald Hill. Frank Elder is a complex and involving soul, and the other major characters are equally well drawn.
By John Harvey Harcourt, $25 384 pages ISBN 0151011397 A lifelong mystery reader who was weaned on the Hardy Boys, globetrotter Bruce Tierney writes (mostly) from Prince Edward Island.
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Silence is golden
The suspense steal of the season
MYSTERY OF THE MONTH