Sahara Dust: A Randa Sorel Mystery

At the start of Ingraham's so-so second mystery to feature Det. Sgt. Randa Sorel (after 2002's Capacity for Evil%E2%80%94reissued for Kindle as Evidence of Evil in 2010), Tyonek Horse, a Native American FBI agent, shoots to death his retired counterpart from the Naval Criminal Investigative Services, Woodrow Barstow, on a Florida beach without being noticed. Horse takes over the federal inquiry into his own crime, while Sorel heads the parallel local police investigation. Under pressure to produce results from her careerist boss, Sheriff Derek Chubleigh, Sorel discovers that Barstow came to Florida to look into intrigue involving arms merchant Raphael Cardozo and Iraqi defector Abu Mosul. That her boyfriend, Lee Fronzi, never told her he had a family connection to Cardozo complicates matters. The fast-paced action fails to compensate for characters who refuse to come alive on the page. (Sept.)