Spring is here and mysteries are in bloom.
There’s something about this time of year that seems to bring out the pollen and also the best in our great mystery writers.
Michael Connelly, who just delivered The Brass Verdict last fall (and sent it rocketing up the best-seller list) is giving us The Scarecrow (Little Brown, $27.99) in a couple of weeks. Jack McEvoy, the hero of The Poet, one of Connelly’s classics, is back and this time he’s laid off. In a truly ripped-from-the-headlines move, the great reporter is a victim of Los Angeles Times downsizing. We’ll talk more about The Scarecrow as we get closer to publication date, but early returns are in and Connelly has scored another winner. (In a move designed mostly to make the rest of humanity feel like a bunch of slackers, Connelly will have his next Harry Bosch mystery out this fall. Pardon me, Dude, but three books in a year . . . . Are you trying to make the rest of us feel like slugs?)
A couple of other Florida mystery writers are bringing out novels as well: Tom Corcoran’s photographer-sleuth Alex Rutledge returns in Hawk Channel Chase (Ketch and Yawl, $24.95). See the print edition of Creative Loafing for more details. And Randy Wayne White is in top form – and that’s saying a lot – in Dead Silence (Putnam, $25.95), his latest Doc Ford mystery. Watch the print Creative Loafing for a career retrospective of White in a couple of weeks.
But let’s stop and praise a couple of other great mystery writers now.
Being a mystery novelist is Tim Green’s third life – at least. After an NFL career (defensive end for the Atlanta Falcons) and service as an attorney, Green became a writer. As an author, he’s written a non-fiction book about adoption and professional football and also published a series of children’s books.
And he’s a heck of a mystery writer. His new book, Above the Law (Grand Central, $24.99) is one of those fast-paced novels written with the urgency of a Twitter post. Like James M. Cain or Robert B. Parker, Green writes as if he’s being charged by the word. He sets a fast pace, then picks up the tempo a bit.
In short, you’ll rip through this book.
This article appears in Mar 25-31, 2009.