cover image Sunset

Sunset

Al Lamanda. Five Star, $25.95 (276p) ISBN 978-1-4328-2584-3

Former cop John Bekker, the hero of Lamanda’s sobering fourth mystery, took a disability discharge and retreated into alcoholism after his wife was raped and murdered in front of their five-year-old daughter, who hasn’t spoken in the 12 years since and remains institutionalized. Bekker, who was involved in a federal investigation of mobster Eddie Crist, believed Crist or Crist’s son, Michael, was behind the attack, but the culprit was never found. When Crist’s wife is murdered, Crist forcibly dries Bekker out and hires him to find the killer, even though Michael, now deceased, may have been behind the hit. Bekker quickly and accidentally stirs things up enough to earn him a beating with worse to follow. As Bekker re-enters the sober world of personal relationships and reacquires his investigative skills, he proves equal to the daunting task in this violent but redemptive journey. Readers will hope Lamanda (Dunston Falls) brings Becker back for an encore. (May)