The Farm Report

(From Bill’s Book Blog in Tampa’s Creative Loafing.)

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?)

 

Author TIM GREEN

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 myCreative Loafing profile of Corcoran 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. WatchCreative 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.

Casey Jordan is an idealistic young lawyer, despite her circumstances. Set up in a reconfigured gas station and beset with a toilet that backs up, she and her small team of fellow idealists work in a former garage, trying to help the poor of Dallas. When she learns of an immigrant who might have been murdered by a powerful U.S. Senator, she goes into overdrive.

With the help of Jose, her pro bono investigator (and sometime love interest), she uncovers a scandal that threatens to cost her her life. And, of course, things are not always as they seem. The corrupt senator’s bimboesque wife is also on a social-justice crusade and, once Jose and Casey get to her, she joins them in their battle.

The major obstacle in their way isn’t the senator. It’s the bad-ass sheriff who does the senator’s dirty work and he is a vile, looming hulk — and a terrific villain.

Maybe Green slips into cliché mode a few times. But the story is so fast-paced (most chapters are three pages) that nothing can stop the book’s velocity.

Casey is a recurring character in Green’s fiction (she last appeared in his book The Letter of the Law), and let’s hope he gets back to us with another one of her stories very soon.

SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING . . . DO NOT READ AT NIGHT: I’m a pretty fearless guy. My immediate reaction on hearing something go bump in the night is to move toward that sound, unarmed, but ready to kick some ass.

I may have to change my method after reading Afraid(Grand Central, $6.99) by Jack Kilborn. This may be the scariest book I have ever read. It makes the most twistedStephen King novel read like He’s Just Not That Into You.

No fooling. The opening of Afraid sets a tremendously high standard of terror — and Kilborn (pseudonym of J.A. Konrath) generally maintains that fright level.

Set in an isolated Wisconsin lake village, the novel begins with the vicious torture of a woman alone in bed while her husband is night fishing in his boat a few hundred yards a way. The killer’s calm, and his methodical approach to inflicting pain, is what’s most frightening.

I don’t want to give anything away, but let me say this: You will never have microwave popcorn again in your life without thinking of this book and this killer.

And, as sadistic a bastard as this killer is, he’s not alone. There are other killers and their terrifying calm is what makes this book so damn scary. Once the mystery of who these sick cretins are begins to unravel, the tension lets up a little, but the relentless storytelling continues. When the narrative switches from the psycho killers to the aging policeman trying to stop the insanity, you breathe a tremendous sigh of relief.

But you can never let down your guard.

This is a great book for beach reading — because it should be read in bright sunlight, with lots of people around. But don’t be surprised if the story steps into your dreams and ends up standing over your bed, slowly chewing popcorn and deciding how to fillet your soul.

Konrath is known for a series of thrillers about Chicago detective Jacqueline (“Jack”) Daniels, all with booze-themed titles (Fuzzy Navel, Whiskey Sour, etc.). As successful as those books have been, we think this new Jack Kilborn horror series will take off. The next one, Trapped, has already been scheduled for publication next winter.

Be Afraid. Be very afraid.