World of Hurt: A Harvey Blissberg Mystery

Edgar winner Rosen (for Strike Three, You're Dead) has written three well-received mysteries starring laconic ex-ballplayer Harvey Blissberg of Boston. The fourth is an asymmetrical novel that moves uneasily between Portland, Maine, and a handful of fictional Chicago suburbs as Harvey, investigating the last days of a dead realtor, finds out a lot about dishonesty, betrayal and revenge. Larry Peplow, with few friends in Garden Hills, Ill., and a curiously empty life, left little to explain a bullet to the head. His past reveals more. He was once a psychotherapist in Maine, with a woman patient who committed suicide. Harvey, moving just ahead of the local cops, cheats on his longtime lover with a randy Garden Hills housewife. While most of the segments set in Chicago sections seem lifeless, those set in the East unleash a deluge of pertinent information. Rosen writes crisp dialogue but he overburdens his characters with flaws, and Harvey's baseball life is an ace too rarely played. The verve shown in Rosen's earlier work is missing here. Readers will hope it's just a slump. Author tour. (Oct.)