Warning Signs, by Stephen White

Boulder psychologist Alan Gregory has a problem.  His new patient, Naomi Bigg,  suspects that her son may be planning to harm the people in the legal community responsible for letting his sister’s rapist go free after a very lenient plea bargain.  Alan wonders whether to go to the police with the information but he is concerned with patient confidentiality.  Plus, if Naomi finds out, she’ll feel betrayed, stop coming to him, and he won’t learn anything more about what her son might be planning.  To make matters worse, Lauren, his lawyer wife, was involved in the plea bargain and she may also be in danger.  Faced with no good choices, Alan decides to investigate on his own, with limited help from friends on the police force.  This was a good suspense novel with an interesting Colorado setting.  If you enjoy Jonathan Kellerman’s novels I think you will also like those of Stephen White
 

Eureka, by William Diehl

It’s the spring of 1941 and LA detectives Zeke Bannon and Ski Agassi are called to investigate the death of Verna Wilensky, electrocuted in her bathtub.  Verna, a widow, had been living a quiet, modest life and her death looks like a tragic household accident.  Then the coroner discovers the cause of death was drowning and the electrocution was staged after her death.  Ski and Zeke find that Verna had been making large monthly bank deposits since 1924 and had over $100,000 stashed in her account—a huge sum for 1941.  Verna had arrived in LA in 1924 with an invented Texas history but Ski and Zeke investigate and believe she came from the small California town of Eureka.  To solve her murder they must delve into past events in Eureka and discover why Verna was being paid so handsomely to live anonymously in LA.  With its flashbacks in time and 1940’s LA setting this was a refreshing change from the typical present day murder mystery.  Very entertaining.
 

Widow’s Walk, by Robert B. Parker

The widow is Mary Smith, the very young, very beautiful, very intelligence-challenged wife of wealthy fiftysomething Nathan Smith.  Nathan has been found shot to death in his bed and Mary has been arrested for his murder.  The evidence is pretty overwhelming and everyone—including her lawyer, Rita Fiore—thinks Mary is guilty.  But, Rita decides to hire Boston private eye Spenser to look into the murder and try to find something she can use with her defense.  The first thing Spenser notices is he is being followed.  Then, people he interviews start turning up dead.  Hmmm.  Might be something more here than a young thing bumping off her rich sugardaddy.  As usual with a Spenser novel, there is a mystery to solve but the real enjoyment comes from the wonderful interplay between Spenser and the new and recurring characters of the series.
 

Southampton Row, by Anne Perry

Ms. Perry continues her Victorian mysteries and this time up it’s the series featuring policeman Thomas Pitt and his wife Charlotte.  In the previous book, The Whitechapel Conspiracy, Thomas had locked horns with the powerful Inner Circle, a secretive group of men hoping to take over the government.  Thomas thought he had bested the leader of the group, Charles Voisey, but Voisey is back and running for a seat in Parliament. Worse, Voisey has managed to get Pitt removed once again from his position as superintendent of the Bow Street police station and he is assigned back to Special Branch—the investigative arm of the government.  The government is threatened by Voisey’s power and his first assignment is to investigate Voisey.  Before Thomas can scarcely get started, a noted clairvoyant named Maude Lamont is found murdered.  The wife of Voisey’s opponent for Parliament had been one of Lamont’s clients and Thomas is put in charge of handling a very delicate murder investigation—one that will prove to be dangerous for him and his family.  This is a nice follow-up to The Whitechapel Conspiracy and an enjoyable sojourn in Victorian London.
 

The Analyst, by John Katzenbach

Dr. Frederick Starks, 53, is the analyst.  He is a New York City psychiatrist seeing a steady stream of patients and living a staid, solitary, uneventful life after the death of his wife several years earlier.  Things are going boringly along when out of the blue Starks receives a mysterious letter from a supposedly former patient from his distant past. Calling himself Rumplestiltskin, he outlines a deadly game that Starks must play.  Rumplestiltskin feels that Starks is responsible for a tragedy that occurred in his life and his game is for Starks to discover his identify in fifteen days. If Starks fails, he must kill himself.  If he doesn’t commit suicide, one of his fifty-two family members will be harmed—which will also happen if Starks goes to the police.  Quite a dilemma!  And, quite a book as Starks decides to play the deadly game and desperately tries to solve the mystery before the fifteen days run out.  Katzenbach, the author of Hart’s War (great book, ok movie), is a wonderful novelist and never writes the same book twice—they’re all different and very entertaining.  Ditto here.
 

The English Assassin, by Daniel Silva

In The Kill Artist, Daniel Silva introduced the wonderfully interesting character of Gabriel Allon, a former Israeli spy who now restores damaged paintings—and sometimes comes out of retirement to handle special assignments for his old boss Ari Shamron, head of Israeli Intelligence.  In his latest assignment, Gabriel is hired by elderly Augustus Rolfe, a wealthy Swiss banker, to restore a Raphael painting.  When Gabriel arrives at the Rolfe manse in Zurich, he finds Rolfe murdered and a secret collection of his paintings stolen.  Gabriel is arrested for the murder but with no evidence he is quickly released after an appeal by Shamron, who gives Gabriel the assignment of looking into the murder and the theft of the paintings.  Rolfe had been in contact with Shamron and was about to give him information on stolen Nazi paintings from World War II.  As Gabriel investigates, people he talked to keep turning up dead—murdered by a hired killer known only as the English Assassin.  Clearly, someone wants the investigation stopped.  The key to the case may be gorgeous Anna Rolfe, Augustus’s daughter and a famous concert violinist.  She is  the sole surviving member of the Rolfe family and Gabriel must use her but at the same time keep her alive from the English Assassin—who has her targeted next.   This is a terrific thriller that sends you all over Europe from the comfort of your easy chair.
 
 
 
 

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