cover image Dunston Falls

Dunston Falls

Al Lamanda, . . Five Star, $25.95 (219pp) ISBN 978-1-59414-586-5

Sheriff David Peck, a former Baltimore homicide detective, faces the biggest challenge of his career when a devastating ice storm paralyzes Dunston Falls, Maine, in Lamanda's suspenseful debut. Peck's efforts to help the isolated town's citizens survive with limited power and supplies get derailed with the discovery of the body of 47-year-old Doris White, who's been stabbed and strangled in her mobile home. Blinding headaches accompanied by haunting images of a fatal fire hamper Peck as he investigates the crime, which proves to be the first in a series of murders. While a closing kicker sheds an unexpected light on the killings, the author's skill at creating tension in his claustrophobic setting suggests the story would have satisfied without this final twist. Echoes of M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense and Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island add to the menacing mood. (Mar.)