Cutdown: A Claude McCutcheon Novel

A deadly paper chase triggered by murders dating back to WWII provides the backdrop to the impressive debut of Berkeley, Calif., attorney Claude McCutcheon. The Italian POW who killed two men while escaping from a detention camp in Virginia was never found, but the local sheriff vowed to track him down after the war. McCutcheon is introduced as he helps nightclub owner Bobby Norton, who witnessed the present-day murder of lefty lawyer Myron Hirsch, get out of police custody. Someone believes that Norton found what the killer desperately wanted and that McCutcheon knows what Norton has. A sudden offer of employment from Margaret Tikkanen, heiress to a lumber fortune, is so fishy that McCutcheon knows she's after something. Radical environmentalists also target him. Miller doesn't conceal the connection between the wartime murders and the Tikkanen empire. The real mysteries here concern how the laid-back lawyer and hard-driving heiress can resolve their surprising relationship and how McCutcheon-who may have secrets of his own from a later war-will deal with the revelations of history. McCutcheon is a hero to watch, showing ingenuity, knowledge of violence and surprising tenderness in this well-plotted, action-filled first bow. Author tour. (Apr.)