No Regrets, Coyote

The Eden, Fla., police believe that Chafin Halliday slaughtered his wife and three young children before killing himself in this absorbing if at times frustrating noir from Dufresne (Louisiana Power & Light). However, therapist Wylie “Coyote” Melville, a volunteer forensic consultant, thinks the supposed murder/suicide looks staged. He also has his doubts about the typed note Halliday left at the scene. Distracted by his own family’s emotional troubles, Wylie is too unfocused to deal with Eden’s escalating tangle of police corruption or to realize how close to its center he is. Lauded as a man of keen insight, Wylie knows something is seriously wrong, but is unaware that he’s become a pawn in a game he no longer understands. His inability to apply his analytic skills to himself is plausible, as is the ease with which those around him steer him for their own benefit, but the result is a story ever so slightly out of focus. Agent: Richard P. McDonough, Richard P. McDonough Literary Agency. (July)