Head Wounds

Ex-boxer and former corporate exec Sam Acquillo, now a hard-drinking carpenter living in a run-down cottage on the shores of the Little Peconic Bay in Southampton, N.Y., becomes the prime suspect in the murder of local builder Robbie Milhouser in Knopf’s superb third Hamptons mystery (after Two Time and The Last Refuge ). With the evidence against him almost overwhelming, Acquillo enlists a misfit group of supporters to help him uncover the real killer’s identity. As he digs into the dead man’s troubled past, Acquillo discovers a disturbing link between Milhouser and Acquillo’s current girlfriend, Amanda Battiston. Knopf excels in describing the rustic underpinnings of Long Island’s east end, especially its vast array of eccentric characters. Brisk pacing and sharp dialogue carry the reader along, but it’s the endearing and deeply flawed Acquillo that’s the heart and soul of this exceptional series. How can you go wrong with a philosophizing hero who drinks Absolut, reads Kant, drives a ’67 Grand Prix and has a dog named Eddie Van Halen? (May)