Death in Holy Orders, by P. D. James

Yikes! P. D. James is eightysomething!  Loyal readers will remember in one of my previous James reviews I mentioned scrutinizing Baroness Jame's jacket photo in an effort to try to figure out how she was holding up.  I had no idea she was entering her ninth decade.  All this is to say that she is one of my very favorite authors and I hope she stays around for a long, long time--and writes every waking moment!  Her latest continues the Adam Dalgliesh mystery series.  Ronald Treves, a young ordinand studying for the priesthood at the small remote theological college of St. Anselm's, is found dead on the beach not far from the college.  Ronald's death is ruled an accident but that does not satisfy his rich and powerful father, Sir Alred Treves.  He wants his son's death to be investigated by the best and that means Commander Dalgliesh. Normally, Dalgliesh would probably have declined but he spent several summers at St. Anselm's as a boy and he decides it might be interesting to return and investigate what happened to Ronald.  Adam has scarcely arrived when a horrific murder takes place in the church at St. Anselm's.  Is the murder related to Ronald's death?  Dalgliesh calls in his team of Piers Tarrant, Kate Miskin, and Sergeant Robbins to assist him in investigating the school's residents and several invited guests staying at the college.  Adam has long been a widower.  As he looks for the killer is love also looking for him?  James has done a wonderful job of creating the world of St. Anselm's  and populating it with interesting characters to get to know. This is the perfect book to curl up with in front of a fire but you'll enjoy it any time of the year.
 

The Blue Nowhere, by Jeffery Deaver

Jon Patrick Holloway, aka Phate, is a master of disguises and might be the best computer hacker in the world.  He is also a sadistic killer playing a game of murdering people after he has learned all about them by using his truly awesome computer skills.  Phate has no trouble breaking into any protected computer site and manipulating it to do what he wants.  Trying to stop Phate is Detective Frank Bishop and the California State Police Computer Crimes Division.  Frank soon realizes that Phate is out of his league and he enlists the help of Wyatt Gillette.  Gillette is possibly as talented as Phate and he is currently serving a jail term for hacking into a super-protected Department of Defense computer site.  Frank springs Gillette from prison and together they go after Phate in the Blue Nowhere of cyberspace.  Deaver's The Empty Chair was the best suspense novel I read last year.  The Blue Nowhere could take this year's honors.  It's a terrific, fascinating novel filled with totally unexpected twists and turns and so suspenseful you'll need to stop reading now and then and catch your breath.  Don't miss it!
 

The First Counsel, by Brad Meltzer

Michael Garrick is a young lawyer working in the Counsel's Office at the White House.  He's dating the president's daughter, Nora, a free-spirited rule breaker.  On one of their dates, Nora and Michael elude her bodyguards and they go to an out of the way bar to be alone.  At the bar they secretly see Edgar Simon, the White House Counsel, and on a lark they decide to follow him.  They witness Simon making a drop along a deserted road and Michael and Nora discover that he has left a package of $40,000.  Is Simon a spy?  Is he being blackmailed?  Has he seen them following him? Before they can decide what to do, Carolyn Penzler, another employee in the Counsel's Office, is found dead at her desk.  Suspicions soon focus on Michael, supposedly the last person to see her alive.  As he tries to get to the bottom of all of this, Michael is also trying to protect Nora and shield her involvement.  This is the second book I've read by Meltzer and it was a fairly entertaining novel but I find his characters to be rather unsympathetic and not very likable so I wasn't too engaged in what happened to them.
 

Mystic River, by Dennis Lehane

This novel has been winning rave reviews and for good reason.  It's terrific.  Sean Devine, Jimmie Marcus, and Dave Boyle are eleven-year-old childhood friends.  Sean's a little better off but all three of them are from the poorer side of town.  One day while they are playing a car stops.  Dave gets in the car but the other two don't.  Fast-forward twenty-five years.  Sean is now a homicide cop.  Jimmie has been a brilliant thief but he's now running a neighborhood store and trying to go straight.  And, Dave?  He faces a daily struggle to overcome what happened to him when he got in that car so long ago.  When Jimmie's nineteen-year-old daughter is found murdered, all three men--who had drifted apart--are thrown back together as the murder investigation involves each of them in a different way.  Tragically, the singular event of Dave's youth will come back to haunt all three men and change not only the outcome of the murder investigation but the rest of their lives.  Dennis Lehane is a wonderful writer and this book is filled with vivid characters that will stay with you.
 

P is for Peril, by Sue Grafton

Dr. Dowan Purcell, sixtysomething and the head of a nursing home, has been missing for nine weeks.  His ex-wife, Fiona, frustrated with the lack of progress on his disappearance, would like private investigator Kinsey Millhone to take on the case.  Kinsey has misgivings.  After nine weeks what is she going to find that the police couldn't?  Plus, she doesn't especially care for Fiona.  But, she could always use the money so she reluctantly agrees.  Kinsey soon finds that there are a number of theories about Purcell's disappearance.  Crystal, his new young wife, thinks he would have never left her and their young son so he must be dead.  Fiona harbors the hope that he ran away to escape Crystal, who is rumored to have had an affair.  Several of the nursing home staff members think Purcell might have disappeared to avoid being prosecuted for Medicare billing fraud.  Well, Kinsey has plenty to sort out in this can of worms!  On the romance front, after a long dry spell Kinsey has met a newcomer in town.  But, as usual with Kinsey, problems ensue.  Great fun from the always reliable Grafton.
 

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