Nobody Move, This Is A Review: The Irish Times' 'Crime Beat'

Patricia Cornwell is credited with kick-starting the current craze for the forensic pathology sub-genre in crime fiction, and her heroine Kay Scarpetta is again ahead of the wind in PORT MORTUARY (Little, Brown, 18.99, hb). Scarpetta employs a 3D system of imagination to assist her autopsy the latest murder victim to lead up on her table, but it`s the victim`s use of advanced technology that appears to be the motivation behind his killing.

Is the US military involved in the execution? And is it a conjunction that the man was killed a stone`s throw from Scarpetta`s front door? Cornwell`s terse prose drives a complex story of unravelling conspiracy theories, in which Scarpetta is ineffective to believe even her closest friends and associates. The rate is slowly but measured, with the second half building to an unstoppable momentum, although first-time readers of Cornwell, and those who choose their heroes flawed, might discover it hard to tender to Scarpetta`s icy-cold demeanour and unquestioned capability in almost every area she encounters. Maeve Kerrigan, the heroine of Jane Casey`s THE BURNING (Ebury Press, 6.99, pb), is the diametrical opposition to Kay Scarpetta. A 28-year-old detective with the London Metropolitan Police, the challenging and likeable Kerrigan is prone to the occasional procedural gaffe as she brings a woman`s quality of empathy to her male-dominated workplace during an investigation into a serial killer who immolates his victims. Casey, on the other hand, rarely puts a foot wrong in this enthralling example of a `bait-and-switch` novel, of which the serial killer element is something of a red herring that allows Casey to dig deeply into the head of an altogether more interesting brand of murder. Parallel first-person narratives from either side of the slight dark line contribute tremendously to the novel`s page-turning quality, although the author`s success here is mostly due to her superb characterisations. Casey`s debut novel, THE MISSING, was shortlisted in the Irish Book Awards crime section, and THE BURNING confirms that she`s a gift to watch. FIELD GREY (Quercus, 17.99, hb) is the 7th in Philip Kerr`s Bernie Gunther series, of which the most recent, IF THE DEAD RISE NOT, won this year`s CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award. Gunther, a policeman in Germany during the thirties and `40s, is the center of what has been dubbed `Nazi noir`, although FIELD GREY opens in 1954, with Gunther observing Graham Greene carousing with women in a Havana nightclub. A serial of unfortunate events finds Gunther back in Germany and answering to American investigators probing Nazi war crimes, which in turn leads to extended flashbacks in which Gunther describes his trans-European adventures in pursuance of a killer called Erich Mielke, a pursuit that finds Gunther and Mielke crossing paths for the length of the war. Dotted with historic personages such as Heydrich and Himmler, the new is impressive in its detail, and harrowing in its description of mass slaughter. Gunther`s fondness for inappropriate quips undermines his authenticity, however, and the detective-cum-soldier`s peripatetic wanderings means that the new can lack narrative drive. Janet Evanovich`s winsome heroine, Stephanie Plum, takes a second seat for her latest offering, WICKED APPETITE (Headline Review, 18.99, hb). Here Lizzy Tucker, singleton and pastry chef supreme, finds her all too normal world turned on its head when a deep and handsome stranger called Diesel materialises in her living and announces that he`s on the tail of seven mysterious stones, which will make the evil Gerwulf Grimoire unlimited powers should he care to accumulate all seven. As fluffy and unsubstantial as Lizzy`s legendary cupcakes, the account appears to be a parody of Harry Potter-style shenanigans, although Evanovich`s reputation for comedy is nowhere evident here. Slight, dull and for the about part needlessly irritating, WICKED APPETITE achieves very little except to heighten the reader`s craving for a real novel. The 8th in Anne Holt`s Hanne Wilhelmsen series, although the beginning to be translated into English, 1222 (Corvus, 12.99, hb) is a far meatier proposition from a former Norwegian Minister for Justice. The wheelchair-bound Wilhelmsen and her fellow passengers find themselves stranded in a distant mountain hotel during a blizzard in the wake of a coach crash, and things go from bad to worse when two of the survivors are murdered in immediate succession. Can the cerebral Wilhelmsen identify the murderer before the hotel becomes a charnel house? Holt has Wilhelmsen reference Agatha Christie`s AND So THERE WERE NONE during the form of her musings, and 1222 is so a smart homage to the classic `locked room` mystery, which also functions as an interrogatory of Norse club in microcosm. While the rate is lively, and the tension expertly handled, Holt`s fondness for red herrings won`t be to every reader`s taste. Michael Connelly brings together two of his best-selling characters in THE REVERSAL (Orion, 18.99, hb), as defence lawyer Mickey Haller and detective Harry Bosch team up to see that a previously convicted child-killer does not escape justice when his case comes up for a retrial. It`s an outrageous conceit, particularly as Connelly is blending the traditional courtroom drama with a police procedural, and alternates Haller`s first-person narration with a third-person story of Bosch`s investigation, but the new has a gripping clarity from the off, and very quickly establishes a compelling momentum. Connelly`s experience as an award-winning journalist is revealed in fascinating nuggets of information pertaining to both sound and police work, even as he draws us deeper into the conflicted worlds of Mickey Haller (for once operating `across the gangway` as a prosecution lawyer) and the haunted Harry Bosch. All told, it`s another expertly handled tale from a natural storyteller which blazes into an incendiary denouement as the child-killer turns his gaze on Mickey and Harry`s daughters. - Declan Burke Top 10 Thrillers of the YearORCHID BLUE by Eoin McNamee (Faber and Faber, 12.99, pb). A stunning meditation on the nature of justice, rooted in the real-life murder of Newry shop-girl Pearl Gamble in 1961. TRICK OF THE Night by Val McDermid (Little, Brown, 18.99, hb) Disgraced clinical psychologist Charlie Flint seeks salvation in the interest of a possible serial killer. THE Lowest CHILD by John Hart (John Murray, 6.99, pb)A new boy tracks his twin sister`s abductor in a superb excavation of the prejudices of small town America. FAITHFUL PLACE by Tana French (Hodder & Stoughton, 12.99, pb)Undercover policeman Frank Mackey`s past comes second to obsess him when a body is discovered in an inner-city Dublin tenement. THE SNOWMAN by Jo Nesbo (Vintage, 6.99, pb)Oslo police detective Harry Hole investigates a killer whose hallmark is a snowman in a hard-hitting tale of revenge. SPIES OF THE BALKANS by Alan Furst (W&N, 18.99, hb)Subterfuge and machination in WWII Greece, as policeman Costa Zannis sets up an underground railroad to aid Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. PEELER by Kevin McCarthy (Mercier Press, 9.50, pb)Excellently detailed historical crime novel set in Cork, in which the RIC and IRA chase the same killer during the War of Independence. STARTED EARLY, TOOK MY DOG by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, 18.99, hb)Whimsical but compelling story of private detective Jackson Brodie`s attempt to describe an abducted child.CITY OF LOST GIRLS by Declan Hughes (John Murray, 19.99, hb)Hughes` series detective investigates a peculiarly Irish morality as a serial killer stalks a Dublin-based movie set. BAD INTENTIONS by Karin Fossum (Harvill Secker, 11.99, pb)Inspector Sejer investigates an apparent suicide in Fossum`s latest cerebral take on the nature of offence and punishment.