Counterfeit Road: A Ben Raveneau Mystery

At the start of Russell’s solid second Ben Raveneau mystery (after 2011’s A Killing in China Basin), the cold case detective views a video sent to him with no explanation showing the murder of Alan Krueger in 1989, 22 years to the day earlier, in a parking lot by San Francisco Bay. Someone shot Krueger, a former Secret Service agent and an expert in counterfeiting, but didn’t take the 61 new $100 bills he was carrying. When Raveneau touches base with the Secret Service, he learns that the bills have since been determined to be counterfeit and possibly linked to a long-planned assassination attempt. The faint trail Raveneau follows lands him on the fringes of a current FBI and Secret Service investigation involving the purchase of weapons grade explosives with the same series of counterfeit bills. Russell smoothly blends mystery and thriller elements as the action builds to its satisfying climax. Agent: Philip Spitzer, Philip G. Spitzer Literary Agency. (June)