Evidence of Murder:

Committed detectives and dedicated forensics specialists pursue the bad guys in this month's crop of crime novels and thrillers. Under review here is a mix of recent novels as well as reissues or translations of works from the 1990's or earlier. The settings are mostly in the U.S. but also include stories from the United Kingdom, Italy, and France. Two ominously feature the word "coffin" in their titles. We'll surely find that the body count is high and that minuscule technical details are crucial for solving the various cases.

First up is Stephen J. Cannell's VERTICAL COFFIN (2004), a police procedural drawing in Los Angeles officers, sheriffs, SWAT teams, and local ATF and FBI agents as an unsettling sniper case unmasks an undercurrent of rivalry and suspicion among the multiple law enforcement organizations. Tellingly, a suburban death-by-cop shooting incident may not be exactly what it appeared to be. Detective Shane Scully pursues the culprit into the mountains and even onto a military gunnery range where he dodges live bombs dropped by fighter jets. This book serves up exciting scenarios and interesting characters but does rather overdo the heroics of the leading man, Scully. The title is a reference to doorways, probably any and all doors, where police officers are considered vulnerable to ambush by criminals.

The lead investigator in Simon Beckett's WRITTEN IN BONE (2007) is Dr. David Hunter, a forensic anthropologist, who is unexpectedly asked to check out a possible suspicious death on a remote British island with few inhabitants but plenty of sheep. A retired detective inspector who happens to live on Runa, the rocky island, assists in the investigation, but other officers just want to close the case quickly, filing the incident as an accident. When a violent storm shuts off communications to the mainland, more fires and more deaths occur. Hunter eventually figures out what is going on, but nearly loses his life on more than one occasion. Readers will likely feel exhausted, as if they had endured the bad weather and relentlessly mounting tensions, by the time they reach the last chapter; and once there, they will find yet another shock and not the usual neat and happy ending.

While much police work, as recounted in fiction at any rate, is methodical, such is not the case for retired FBI behavioral specialist Gregor Demarkian in GLASS HOUSES (2007) by Jane Haddam. For one thing, he himself is distracted by the return of his lover after a disappearance lasting a year; and, for another, the two designated investigators seeking a serial killer targeting middle-aged women in Philadelphia are at odds with one another, even to the extent of hiding evidence and not filing records of interviews and investigative steps. A homeless man charged with the crimes turns out to be a known drunk and scion of a wealthy family; he may not be guilty of any of the crimes and certainly has not committed all of them. Eventually, Demarkian figures it all out, once the probable motivation becomes clear. One interesting subplot involves a visiting British journalist, one who hates all things American, highlighting her remarkable ability to misinterpret almost everything and to irritate nearly everyone she meets.

A serial killer is on the loose also in Ridley Pearson's PROBABLE CAUSE (1990), featuring James Dewitt as a former forensic investigator turned homicide detective. The book opens with a shocking scene where Dewitt witnesses the murder of his wife and near-fatal wounding of one of his daughters. When next we see him, he is working as a detective in Carmel, California. He eventually catches the killer, a copycat serialist as it turns out, and builds a convincing case only to see it nearly demolished in the courtroom by the killer's clever lawyer, who has developed a distinct animosity towards Dewitt. The court scenes may be the best ones in this story, which is also strong on the details of evidence and procedure. A couple of incidents take place at an aquarium.

Magdalen Nabb's storytelling is more subtle in THE MARSHAL AT THE VILLA TORRINI (1993), possibly because there is only one death, a rather puzzling one, to consider. Marshal Guarnaccia, a policeman based in Florence, suspects the husband of a woman found drowned in a bathtub but has trouble finding any incriminating evidence. In a slow but not exactly plodding fashion, the highly intuitive Guarnaccia succeeds in ferreting out motives by interviewing and re-interviewing the witnesses. Finally, from the step-daughter he learns of the likely method for the murder and thereby snares the evil doer. This is a fascinating story, not least because of the pleasant setting in a tourist mecca in Italy.

A more dour environment greets readers of Ian Rankin's EXIT MUSIC (2008), as soon-to-retire detective inspector John Rebus pursues his last case in Edinburgh, Scotland. Suspects in two probably related murders include bankers, visiting Russians, prostitutes, drug dealers, and local crime bosses. Rebus, never a team player, insists that the killing of a dissident Russian poet is not a mugging gone awry and that the murder of the poet's diligent recorder of public readings is not just a tragic accident. Higher ranking and lower ranking police officials disagree with Rebus, who ends up suspended but still manages to uncover the truth in both cases and also discovers the actual culprit in the near-fatal beating of long-time nemesis, the gangster Morris Cafferty. A retirement gift of an iPod full of his favorite tunes provides Rebus with his "exit music." Fans of this series will regret the end of Rebus' career as a detective and will likely hope for more stories featuring this rather cynical and curmudgeonly character.

A decidedly foreign enclave in a major city is the focus of detective Jack Yu in Henry Chang's CHINATOWN BEAT (2006), as he strives to make a difference in a part of New York he knows so well. The time is 1994, so there is overt racism, plenty of violence, and rampant organized crime to deal with; and, meanwhile, Jack is trying to come to terms with the recent death of his father and his own move out to Brooklyn. This rather dark tale provides some insights into Chinese culture and mixes in fortune tellers, mah jong players, noodle shops, mistresses, limo drivers, and hired thugs. Jack aids in bringing down a serial rapist and tracks down the people concerned in the killing of Uncle Four, a feared local gangster. A neat ending allows the reader to speculate on the eventual fate of the late Uncle Four's unhappy but clever mistress.

Pierre Magnan's DEATH IN THE TRUFFLE WOOD (1978, translated in 2007) centers on a serial killer targeting vagabonds, or hippies, who have settled or stopped at least for a time at an old, ruined chapel near Banon, a small village in Provence where the woods are excellent for harvesting truffles. Commissaire Laviolette is charged with getting to the bottom of the case which initially just seemed to feature mysterious disappearances. But then one of the bodies shows up in a hotel freezer. The others are found shortly thereafter and turn out to have been drained entirely of blood, a detail that shocks everyone. Additional participants in this entertaining story are a sow with an especially keen nose and her loving master, an adulterous wife with a taste for fine jewelry, a womanizer, a scheming factory owner who drives a Mercedes, joyriders who pick the wrong winter night to steal a car, a little lost dog, an aristocrat with an old book full of recipes for magic spells, and, of course, a handful of distrustful truffle farmers. The sow turns out to be a heroine, and the aristocrat's old book holds an important clue.

Last on this month's list is a clever thriller from Jeffery Deaver. THE COFFIN DANCER (1998) presents a great roller-coast ride, with unexpected twists in nearly every chapter. Paralyzed forensics expert Lincoln Rhyme heads up an investigation seeking a deadly contract killer dubbed with the colorful nickname used as the book's title. Bombs on planes, safe-houses that are far from being flawlessly protected refuges, and cops who react too late to a stone-cold killer's sharpshooter moves are integral to the plot which revolves around grand jury witnesses, only one of whom is around by the end of the novel. Crime scene evidence is of paramount importance for Rhyme and his assistants, but they must also deal with bureaucratic infighting and personality conflicts that end up endangering everyone, including the bedridden Rhyme. One exciting scene features a plane which must land without fuel or full electrical function before a bomb goes off. The breakneck pace and nimble plot surprises of this excellent crime novel account for its continuing popularity and ready availability at local bookstores.

Tricky evidence and oddball characters populate this somewhat random selection of crime fiction, all books which are currently on tap in bookstores and libraries across the U.S. Whether a reader wishes for non-stop action or prefers a quieter ratiocination, the books briefly remarked upon in this essay present some good choices. Visit Phildelphia or Florence, Provence or New York or Edinburgh, and meanwhile find out about an author's perception of the locality as well as his/her ability to spin a convincing yarn.