A Picture of Her Tombstone

The ghost of Lipinsky's first Carroll Dorsey mystery, the 1994 Shamus nominee The Fall-Down Artist, hovers distractingly over the first few chapters of his second book about the Pittsburgh PI. But soon the references to past adventures become as natural a part of this gritty, expertly crafted story about drugs, death, family and honor in a working-class neighborhood as the Rolling Rock and Iron City beers consumed by the hundreds. A former Duquesne basketball star whose knee blew out before he could try for the pros, a law school dropout and son of a powerful politician, a bachelor whose occupational violence disrupts his relationship with Dr. Gretchen Keller, Dorsey is more than the sum of these slightly shopworn parts. The relatively slow arc of Lipinsky's story is a refreshing change from the fast-break style of most mysteries. As Dorsey searches for the missing 17-year-old granddaughter of a tough old Polish-American woman, he makes mistakes, follows false leads, places his trust in the wrong places. Forced to make a choice between two villains, one of whom happens to be his father, he does what he hopes is right and then goes to ask his elderly uncle if it was. His indecision makes him one of us and a series figure whose appearances will likely be more and more welcome. (July)