MYSTERIES

Even a casual reader would understand why Zack Walker’s wife and children occasionally are tempted to take a stick to him in Linwood Barclay’s debut mystery, Bad Move (Bantam, $22, 310 pages).

Zack is a worrywart of Olympian degree and some of the ploys he uses to make a point are crafted to misfire the minute they are implemented.

Take the “stolen car” ploy, for example, where Zack takes a relatively straightforward situation and adds twists and layers until everyone involved is ready to smack him silly.

So what happens when a worrywart encounters a real crime with real criminals and real danger? You wouldn’t believe. Nor would you believe the cast of characters Walker encounters when he moves his family from the downtown neighborhood they love to deepest suburbia in search of a safe environment.

There’s a dominatrix down the street and the neighbor who is so good with gardening is growing an illegal crop in his basement, and that’s just for starters.

But Zack tops them all when he finds a murder victim in supposedly secure Oakwood. In no time Zack has mixed himself up in the matter so thoroughly that he must solve the crime himself to remain safe from good guys and bad guys alike.

Here is a delightful character (if you’re not married to him) in a clever plot created with thoughtful and skilled writing. Dare we hope for a second encounter?

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Want to solve the murder that opens Jennifer Patrick’s debut novel, The Night She Died (Soho, $24, 325 pages)? Just look for the person who has the most to lose.

Except everyone involved with Lara Walton, the new girl in town, has something to lose when she decides to leave the small, remote Georgia community where she had settled temporarily to grieve for her lover.

Though Lara dies early in the book, we see her in flashback through the eyes of those she touched during her short stay. We also see the dynamics of lives trapped in that isolated town, where every move appears predestined by events that occurred years, even generations, ago.

Big-city Lara, her emotional life in tatters after her lover’s death, is like fireworks, all spark, sizzle and sound, but leaving behind only an image — and wreckage. It is impressive how much damage can be caused without intent.

And eventually Lara herself is destroyed, rather as a pathogen is wiped out when it invades a strong host.

There is a lot of talent on display here. It will be interesting to see Miss Patrick’s next offering.

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Story Continues →