Deadman: A Detective Sergeant Mulheisen Mystery

In his last appearance, in Hit on the House , Detroit cop Fang Mulheisen chased the killer of a mob hoodlum. He lost the chase and the trail went cold. Oh well. Jackson, who delights in sending his readers down these supposed cul-de-sacs, employs circuitous characterization and irony as a counterbalance to conventional crime fiction notions of right and wrong. Here, as corpses accumulating in Butte, Mont., suggest the involvement of Motor City mobsters, Fang takes a busman's holiday and finds himself in a strange land where the natives smile on the streets, crystal whitewater rapids beckon and women strip at the sight of a hot spring. A Detroit mob enforcer named Joe is found nearly dead on the side of a Montana road. His girlfriend Helen, the daughter of a dead mobster and Fang's best suspect in the unsolved hit featured in the last book, has vanished with lots of cash. Hit killer Heather, hired by the mob to finish off Joe, is sidetracked by her love for the pretty nurse who's taking care of Joe, preaching the gospel of Jesus and fondling her patient's privates during sponge baths. This being the West, there must be a showdown--this time involving mobsters, cops and locals. Jackson's characters are a generous, joyous gift: Fang as fish out of water, Helen as moll on the run and Heather as a homophobe's nightmare. Jackson lost 10 writing years between his debut The Blind Pig , and Grootka , his truly masterful followup. He's back on track now with this, his second winner in as many years. (Feb.)