New Jersey Noir: Barnegat Light

In Baer’s uneven third mystery featuring Paterson, N.J., PI Jack Colt (after 2021’s New Jersey Noir: Cape May), Colt gets embroiled in two murder cases: the stabbing of a junior publishing executive, Chloe Hathaway, and the freakish death of Glen Garvey, “one of the most respected judges in Passaic County,” whose body is found hanging adjacent to a jail cell in the basement of his own home. Chloe’s twin sister, special agent Zoe Hathaway of the FBI’s National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, joins Jack as he goes through the paces of investigating Chloe’s recent ex-boyfriend, as well as the connections among Garvey; his Rutgers law student daughter, Savannah Garvey; convict András Papp; and the Innocence Project nonprofit. Terse narrative prose coupled with bouncy, witty dialogue makes for fast-paced, entertaining reading, but the book’s last third is weighed down by dissociated, spare minutiae concerning the logic and motivations behind the murders. The opening assassination of Paterson mayor-elect Meredith Hopkins, the governor’s daughter, is also superfluous, and Jack’s self-aware sexism may turn off some readers. Baer has done better. (Sept.)