Duplicity: A Brick Kavanagh Mystery

Wilson’s excellent sequel to Relentless finds Brick Kavanagh, a former Washington, D.C., police detective, back home after three months in Ireland, where he was recovering from the previous book’s traumatic events. Now, at 42, he’s ready to try something new. One possibility, suggested by Grace Alexander, a professor at a local university, is for him to teach a seminar on cold cases to students of criminology. Grace even has a real case in mind—the hit-and-run death of a grad student—though it’s complicated by the prime suspect having diplomatic immunity. Then, on a weekend in Chicago with a flight attendant he met in Ireland, Brick hears that the wife and infant twins of his friend and former partner, Ron Hayes, have vanished, possibly kidnapped. Back in D.C., Brick lends Ron his wholehearted support, even as some disturbing information about his friend surfaces in the course of the investigation. Never mind, as Brick and Ron admit, that dumb luck and coincidence result in satisfying resolutions to both cases: it’s a cracking good time. One doesn’t have to be a mystery fan to relish this. (Oct.)