DARKNESS FALLS

Who's the man responsible for grabbing Clara Pascal—an attractive, successful criminal lawyer—outside her daughter's school, then chaining her to a wall and subjecting her to a barrage of mental and physical attacks? Is it the nameless lunatic we meet in the first chapter of British author Murphy's latest high-tension thriller (after 2001's Dying Embers ), who has already killed at least one woman and is busy looking for his next victim? Is there some connection with the crime lord Clara is prosecuting in an upcoming trial, or one of her other cases? Could her husband, a flashy but unstable businessman, be involved? Murphy is absolutely fair as she moves her totally credible team of cops through each possibility, with some doors opening and others closing (or appearing to close) at every turn. And her villain, who never shows Clara his face, is all the more frightening because of his rough-edged intelligence. "Who do you think you're kidding?" he asks her at one point. "Of course you want to know who I am. Because you think if you know who I am, you'll be able to reason with me, use that persuasive patter you're so famous for." It spoils nothing to know that Clara does just that by the end of this well-crafted novel. Agent, Jane Gregory. (June 26)