THE SILENT HOUR

Private eye Lincoln Perry walks the meanest streets of the 21st century.

While his partner Joe is in Florida considering retirement, Linc drifts around their Cleveland office ignoring mail and phone calls until the door opens to admit Parker Harrison, who’s been trying to reach him for months. Parker, paroled 13 years ago after doing time for killing his ex’s boyfriend, wants him to find Alexandra Cantrell. She ran Whisper Ridge, the halfway house Parker lived in for a year after he got out of jail, until she and her husband Joshua disappeared. Linc turns him down, then reconsiders when Joshua’s body is uncovered on the Whisper Ridge property. Who killed him? Who buried him? The case hinges on two factors: Alexandra’s insistence on rehabbing cons and her blood tie to the Sanabria crime family. Ken Merriman, a Pittsburgh shamus, becomes involved, although he refuses to identify his client; the gumshoes are soon invading Detective Quinn Graham’s turf and uncovering former Whisper Ridge residents who were plants, some loyal to the FBI, some to the Sanabria interests. A retired FBI agent still after Sanabria causes more complications, and even Joe’s return from Florida can’t cut through all the double-crosses or save Ken’s life. Employing his stubbornness and investigative skills, Linc manages to unravel many mysteries and find the missing Alexandra but remains unsure of his own direction.

Feisty plotting and the most memorable prose since Chandler. Koryta (A Welcome Grave, 2007, etc.) belongs on every genre reader’s bookshelf.