Second Chance, by James Patterson

Seems like the hills are alive with serial killers—at least in novels.  San Francisco has one operating and detective Lindsay Boxer, in charge of the case,  thinks she sees a pattern to several of the murders.  For Lindsay, newly promoted, the pressure is really on when a high-ranking member of the police force is the latest victim of the killer.  Time to assemble the Women’s Murder Club, introduced in First to Die.  You’ll recall the club consists of Lindsay, reporter Cindy Thomas, Assistant District Attorney Jill Bernhardt, and medical examiner Claire Washburn.  Although the four have all the bases covered and they make a good investigating team, this case may have several of them rethinking their club memberships—when the killer puts them on his hit list.  This wasn’t bad but after two books the main characters should be much more distinct—and interesting.
 

The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria, by Laura Joh Rowland

Sano Ichiro, our intrepid samurai detective, is back once again in the seventh installment of this wonderful Rowland series set in late 17th century Japan.  The story opens with Sano and his wife Reiko trying to recover from the harrowing Black Lotus investigation, which caused them to clash with each other. That case has left Sano physically drained and Reiko questioning her marriage and her usefulness to Sano.  A time of quiet reconciliation is what’s needed but it’s not to be.  Instead, Sano is called to investigate the murder of the shogun’s designated heir.  He has been found dead in the room of Lady Wisteria, a famous courtesan who has disappeared.  The shogun expects a quick solution to the crime and Sano is once again under the gun to get results while at the same time battling competing palace forces trying to undermine him and his investigation.  To make matters worse, Sano had a serious involvement with Lady Wisteria in his bachelor days and fears Reiko will find out, further weakening their fragile marriage.  In one of the most important and dangerous cases of his career, Sano must call upon all his resources, including Reiko, when he becomes a suspect in the crime.   Well-developed characters, good stories, and the historical Japanese setting make this series a winner.
 

The Millionaires, by Brad Meltzer

New Yorkers Oliver Caruso and his brother Charlie both work at the very exclusive private bank of Greene & Greene.  For six months, Oliver has been trying to find any heirs to one of the bank’s abandoned accounts but hasn’t had any success.  With no heirs to be found, the three million dollars in the account is scheduled to be turned over to the government.  Oliver and his brother have been toiling at rather lowly positions at the bank and they hit upon a scheme to nullify the government deposit and transfer the money to an account they’ve set up for themselves in Antigua.  It’s a good plan and moving three million dollars isn’t going to be noticed.  Unfortunately for the brothers, when the transaction goes through to their account in Antigua, the amount transferred from the abandoned account is $313 million and suddenly some very dangerous people have very definitely taken notice.   And, Charlie and Oliver are now running for their lives as they try to figure out what happened to their seemingly foolproof plan.  Sounds pretty good, huh?  Meltzer’s books always have potentially terrific story lines and this one’s no different.  If only the execution were just as terrific.  The problem is I’d be hard pressed to tell you more than a handful of things about the main characters--most of them not good--and if I don’t know much about the characters I’m not going to care much about what happens to them.  As usual with a Meltzer book, I found myself hoping the bad guys would get the better of these two vague yet unlikable characters and that’s not a good thing.
 

Acid Row, by Minette Walters

Back in the 1950s and 60s a lot of poorly planned low-income housing was constructed—some of which is now being bulldozed.  England built its share of subsidized housing, too, and we visit one such fictional complex in Walters's latest.  Called Bassindale Row, over the years the entrance sign has lost some of its letters and only ASSI D ROW remain, with the complex commonly called Acid Row.   And, Acid Row is a good description of a badly designed fortress-like residence plagued by drugs, gangs, crime, unemployment, and violence.  It’s a mixture ready to explode.  When the residents learn that a pedophile has been moved into the complex and a young girl is missing, they organize a protest march that builds to hundreds of people and soon gets out of control—with the crowd threatening to burn down the pedophile’s house.  Trapped in the home is Sophie Morrison, a young doctor who was visiting a patient.  With the police blocked from entering the barricaded complex, Sophie is on her own to save herself and try to quell the riot.  I liked Walters’s last book, The Shape of Snakes, and this was enjoyable, too, with several interesting story lines carried by a good cast of characters.
 

McNally’s Alibi, by Vincent Lardo

Archy McNally, the playboy P.I. who does discreet inquiries for his father’s Palm Beach law firm, finds himself a murder suspect in this latest in the McNally series.  It all starts when Archy agrees to deliver $50,000 to retrieve a client’s embarrassing diary—stolen by her ex-boyfriend.  Archy gets what he thinks is the diary but as he reaches his car he is bopped over the head and the diary is gone when he wakes up.  Upon further investigation, Archy discovers that he was really delivering the $50,000 to buy the long-lost missing chapters of Truman Capote’s Answered Prayers for a Palm Beach collector.  The original seller of the manuscript turns up murdered and Archy is one of four suspects.  The other three all seem to be lying and it will be up to Archy to sort it all out and clear his name.  On the bright side, the police investigator on the case is a beautiful, blond female so things can’t be that bad.  Vincent Lardo is doing a nice job with this series that he took over from the late Lawrence Sanders and this was an easy, fun read.
 
 
 

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