WHODUNIT?

REVIEWS BY BRUCE TIERNEY

Newcomers start the year off right

The New Year brings two enticing debut mysteries, plus two thrillers from proven masters of the genre.

Sean Chercover's debut novel, Big City, Bad Blood, is the only book this month that features an honest-to-Pete private eye as the central character. It is the year end, and P.I. Ray Dudgeon has enough money stashed to ride out the holidays. Still, he has wanted a new car for some time, so when a Hollywood studio mogul offers him a job as bodyguard to an embattled employee, Dudgeon agrees to take the assignment. It should be straightforward enough: protect the guy, a prosecution witness against a mob boss, until the trial ends, after which said mobster will go to prison. However, when the other witnesses begin to drop like flies, Dudgeon realizes he may have bitten off a bit more than he can chew. Good pacing, tight storyline, a likable protagonist just aching for a sequel—Chercover is well worth watching (and reading).


The second debut novel, Marcus Sakey's The Blade Itself, has been the recipient of more advance praise than any mystery in recent memory. So, of course I was skeptical. Turns out I didn't need to be, as The Blade Itself is a strikingly good first novel. Danny Carter harbors a secret: Several years back, he was involved in a robbery that went bad. His partner, Evan McGann, was caught and sent directly to jail, without passing "go," and without collecting $200. Danny, on the other hand, went straight, and made a good life for himself, with only occasional furtive glances in the rearview mirror. Now Evan is out on parole and he wants Danny's help to set up a new caper. Danny wants no part of it, but Evan holds the trump card—Danny could lose everything if Evan were to turn on him. An impossible choice, but one that Sakey develops intricately and believably to a high-tension conclusion. The Blade Itself is a strong early candidate for Whodunit's best first mystery novel of 2007.


Chasing corruption

S.J. Rozan, a longtime Whodunit favorite, is back with a stand-alone thriller, In This Rain, a tale of corruption in New York City's construction industry. Three years back, Joe Cole was successful, with a wife and daughter, and a good job as a NYC building inspector. Then the death of a child at a construction site called for a scapegoat, and Joe was singled out, sent to prison for a crime he had no part of. Now he is out, and living quietly outside the city. But not for long, as his ex-partner Ann Montgomery needs his help with her latest case, and she will not take no for an answer. There is political intrigue galore, closed-door deals and criminal behavior all the way up the food chain to the mayor's office and beyond. But maybe, just maybe, there is a chance for Joe to prove his innocence and bring down the people responsible for his imprisonment. A well-crafted suspense novel geared for folks fascinated with the machinery (and machinations) of politics and corruption at high levels.


Mystery of the month

Set in New Orleans in the early part of the 20th century, David Fulmer's first three novels were stylish and atmospheric tales of jazz and murder in the Big Easy. For his latest thriller, The Dying Crapshooter's Blues, Fulmer moves a few hundred miles eastward to 1920s Atlanta, and a new protagonist, Joe Rose, a mixed-race thief of jewelry and hearts, although not necessarily in that order. Rose has just blown into Atlanta when he is summoned to the scene of a shooting. The dying man's final request is that Rose find out why he was shot, and bring the perp to justice. It will not be an easy task, as folks on both sides of the law have a vested interest in keeping the killer under wraps, even though everyone (the reader included) knows his identity early on. Aided by his delightfully larcenous love interest, Pearl Spencer, Rose undertakes an investigation that leads him from the mansions of Atlanta's elite to the mean streets of the "colored" section. Rich in historical detail, infused with atmosphere, suspenseful and action-packed, The Dying Crapshooter's Blues earns this month's Tip of the Ice Pick Award.


© 2007 ProMotion, inc.