cover image CONVICTION

CONVICTION

Elise Title, . . St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-312-31820-8

Title's third novel to feature Boston corrections officer Natalie "Nat" Price offers more developed characters and a more believable plot than last year's uneven Inside Out . When an SUV mows down socialite/call girl Jessica Asher outside the townhouse where she entertained her clients, Price's boss, Deputy Commissioner Stephen Carlyle, is suspect number one. Apparently, Asher was blackmailing him with steamy photographs snapped surreptitiously during their trysts. As if that weren't enough, Price also has to contend with an unwanted pregnancy, a feud with rising policewoman Fran Robie and Carlyle's own sons, the disabled Alan and the thuggish Sean—but she never loses her compassion, which seems genuine, not an author's device. During the eulogy she delivers at a memorial service, "Nat was terrified that if she surrendered to the pain of this loss—any one loss—she might collapse under the agony of all the others." Several times, she goes undercover as a call girl—donning a blonde wig, padded bra and designer clothes—to interact, unrecognized, with people she's met in her investigation. This strains credibility a little, but doesn't detract from keeping this a fun, deft book, continuously addictive and puzzling until its last sentences. Agent, Helen Rees. (June 16)