Driven to Murder

Burke (Fire Watch, Getting Away with Murder) spends so much time and energy hiding the villain's identity that the reader of this mystery tires of the game. Assistant DA Jack Meehan (of a Boston suburb) is given an open-and-shut case: Georgine Goodfellow has confessed to the fatal shooting of her accountant husband. But she hasn't given Meehan a convincing reason, and he senses something wrong. Meehan delves more deeply than his boss (up for re-election) wants, and as political pressures increase, he finds evidence of a spare-parts scam at a large auto dealership (one of the victim's clients). There's another death linked to the dealership and Meehan begins focusing on its owner; eventually more suspects surface, along with more deaths and a matter of sexual enslavement. The political background is slim but feels authentic, and there is a nice, chilling ending; however, the cliches of the young, principled attorney and the murderer-without-a-motive are less gripping. Despite the red herrings, sharp readers will spot the bad guy. January 30