Shallow Grave in Trinity County

Exhuming the 1955 kidnapping-murder of 14-year-old Stephanie Bryan, daughter of a Berkeley doctor, Farrell displays the skills that won him an Edgar for his 1992 nonfiction book, Swift Justice. For the die-hard proceduralist, he provides clear details on the ins and outs of the 40-year-old case, including mid-century investigative technology and the all-male, all-WASP cast of crew-cut Bay Area prosecutors and detectives. As the tale unfolds, Farrell does an expert job of relating how the shocking crime disrupted daily life in the then sleepy Berkeley community, and how it played in the local and national papers. He does a fine job of profiling the others involved in the case,as well. The accused killer, Burton ""Bud"" Abbott, is particularly well drawn, with Farrell's portrait revealing a supreme vanity punctured by brief stabs of doubt and hopelessness. But Farrell's insistence on following every rumor and every piece of paper to its final resting place has a slightly numbing effect on his report. By hewing to a strictly chronological approach, moreover, he occasionally presents the same evidence more than once. Still, this is, overall, a first-rate exposition of an interesting case that in many ways prefigures the recent Polly Klass killing. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)