Set in 1969 during the trial of the Chicago Eight, Edgar-finalist Nelscott's sixth Smoky Dalton novel (after 2005's War at Home
) deftly interweaves the issue of race with politics, societal questions and personal relationships, like Smokey's on-again, off-again romance with Laura Hathaway, a white businesswoman. Laura asks Smokey to investigate an empty Queen Anne house that had been bought by her dishonest father's company years earlier. The house, separated into apartments, has slowly emptied over the years until there's only one resident, the manager, Mortimer Hanley. Hanley's death leads to Smokey's inspection, which in turn brings a horrific discovery: the basement is bricked up into many rooms, and each room holds dead bodies. Laura and Smokey bring in Wayne LeDoux, a persnickety criminologist, to do forensic work at the house, and Tim Minton, an expert from a local funeral home, joins him. The two men form a special bond, and like the bond between Smokey and his adopted son, make a suspenseful mystery into something much richer. (Mar.)
