Jack Kerley A Garden of Vapers

A Garden of Vapers

Jack Kerley

Dutton, Jun 2006, $24.95

ISBN: 0525949526

In Mobile, Alabama, two homicide detective teams hear the report from dispatch, each claims the case as theirs. Pace Logan and Tyree Shuttles drag race Carson Ryder and Harry Nautilus to the scene as first come investigates. At the crime sight, a slight scuffle occurs, but in the end partners Ryder and Nautilus take the lead on investigating the slashing murder of journalist, Taneesha Franklin. The next morning Carson learns that his girlfriend, TV reporter Dani Danbury was mentoring Taneesha at the station and the two women becaame close friends.

The few clues the two sleuths uncover lead them to the wealthy scions of great society the philanthropic Kincannon family run by a steel magnolia matriarch whose unhinged sons have no regard for anyone else. The case takes weird spins as others involved with Taneesha died and someone else seems resolved to solve the homicide at any price leading Ryder and Nautilus to wonder if the dinosaur Logan is setting a pace to disrupt theirs even as the veteran team finds they too are targets of a seeming psychopath.

The third Ryder-Nautilus police procedural is a solid whodunit that fans of the sub-genre will enjoy though it doesn't achieve the level of its predecessors (see THE HUNDREDTH MAN and THE DEATH COLLECTORS). The teammates still work well together, which becomes obvious when they are forced into a temporary separation. However, this time around all roads lead to the same center, A GARDEN OF VAPERS filled with the Kincannon brood. Thus fans of the series will be slightly disappointed as the anticipated chilling spin never comes; Jack Kerley has spoiled his fans as this novel is still a strong investigative tale.

Harriet Klausner