Mystery/Thriller Book Reviews
Page Four of FiveThe Death of a Constant Lover by Lev Raphael
Walker & Co., April 1999.Hardcover, 276 pages.
ISBN: 0802733263.
Ordering information:
Amazon.com.
Nick Hoffman, beleaguered professor of
Rhetoric at the State University of
Michigan and sometime amateur sleuth, has
decided to take his partner Stefan's
advice to have lunch near the Michigan River to exorcise
his old demons (he once discovered a dead body in the
river). Unfortunately, the advice backfires and Nick
is on the scene for yet another murder. This time, the victim is
one of Nick's former students, Jesse Benevento, who was
stabbed during a near-riot. When another body
appears, Nick is dragged unwillingly into another
murder investigation, which he just knows is not going
to help his chances of getting tenure.
This is the third entry in the delightfully addictive Nick Hoffman series (See, Let's Get Criminal and The Edith Wharton Murders). The versatile Lev Raphael is a talented satirist who skillfully skewers the pretensions of the academic world, where professors participate in deadly duels of wit and engage in intrigue worthy of characters in a Le Carré novel. The relationship between Nick and Stefan is explored in more depth, and has a slightly darker tinge than the first two books in the series. As is usual with Raphael's books, the writing is witty and laugh-out-loud funny in places -- you'll find it impossible to put this one down once you start reading. Highly Recommended.
--Claire E. White
Par Four by Elizabeth Gunn
Walker & Co., Jan., 1999.Hardcover, 291 pages.
ISBN: 0802733247.
Ordering information:
Amazon.com.
Lieutenant Jake Hines has just earned a promotion
to Chief of Detectives. And from
the way the local crimes have been escalating, he feels
more like the Chief of Detectives of New York City
than of Rutherford, Minnesota. A burglary of a
local watering hole turns into a double homicide,
a little girl has been kidnapped and there seems to
be a marked increase in crack dealing. Add in
problems in his love life, and you have a recipe
for a world-class headache for Hines. But Hines
seems well-up to the challenge, and sets out to
get his town in order.
Jake is a likeable guy, and the residents of Rutherford make for entertaining reading. Police procedural fans will be pleased with this more than capable follow-up to Gunn's first novel starring Jake Hines, Triple Play.
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