Michael Norman, Silent Witness

In Salt Lake City, police officer Kate McConnell investigates the brutal murder of Arnold Ginsberg and the disappearance of Robin Joiner; they are the eyewitnesses to a failed armored car robbery. Utah Department of Corrections Special Investigations Branch Chief Sam Kincaid joins Kate on her inquiry because the alleged armored robbery gang's leader, Mormon polygamist Walter Bradshaw awaits trial without any witnesses to testify against him.

At the same time as he works on the Bradshaw case, Sam also deals with his former wife filing for custody of their daughter. Still in spite of the distraction in his personal life that tears at his guts, Sam diligently and obstinately works the investigation along side of Kate; both hoping the college student who was snatched remains alive.

SILENT WITNESS, the sequel to (see THE COMMISSION), is an enjoyable Utah police procedural that uses the headlines of the Jett case to tell a strong investigative tale. Kate and Sam are competent cops trying to do the job, which entails rescuing a twentyish college coed while the brass hinders their efforts. Sam's personal life also intrudes on the investigation, but it is his new CYA boss who makes the inquiry that much more difficult. Michael Norman provides a fine thriller.

Harriet Klausner

The Fisher Boy

Stephen H. Anable

Poisoned Pen, May 2008, $22.95

ISBN: 9781590584811

Mark Winslow and his improv actors group leave Boston to perform in Provincetown. His summer stay starts upbeat over the Memorial Weekend when he attends a party thrown by his friend Arthur Hilliard; Mark anticipates meeting club owners as everyone who is anyone wants to be seen at this scene.

However, everything turns bloody ugly starting with the dead dog on the outside stoop; or perhaps as Mark suggests before that canine incident the Swedish tall ship the Vasa in the harbor was the harbinger of death. When Mark has an argument with Ian Drummond at a restaurant, he thinks nothing of it until later when he finds the brutalized corpse of Ian. Knowing he is the prime suspect in the killing of a Boston Brahmin, Mark investigates while noticing an influx of Scandinavian tourists but clues hint at the Christian Soldiers in town for the exhibition of the early twentieth century work of artist Thomas Royall.

More a witty social commentary on life in Provincetown, THE FISHER BOY is an entertaining amateur sleuth tale although the detecting takes a back seat to Mark's observations on life in the Cape during that fatal summer. The story line is character driven by Mark who seeks motive through his observations on the various diverse groups battling for supremacy of the Cape Cod town. Readers will appreciate this fine whodunit that is more a deep look at the discordance of diversity.

Harriet Klausner