Unnatural Acts

Jones (Thicker Than Water; Outside the Rules) is an ophthalmic surgeon who lives in Wales, but he obviously knows a lot about Chicago, where his strong and moving new book is set. He also knows a lot about schizophrenics, necrophiliacs, police officers under family pressure and the grief of losing a sibling. All these elements play important parts in this story, which begins with the brutal, painfully graphic murder of a Welsh doctor, Catrin Jacob, outside Chicago's Adler Planetarium. A tortured, increasingly violent schizophrenic named Jake Bek is the sole witness; he calls the only person with whom he can communicate-his older brother, Lou, who happens to be a homicide detective. Lou has to deal with the possibility that his brother is the woman's killer, which keeps him from digging as deeply as he should into other suspects. This angers both his new partner, Susan Mackie, an ambitious woman with family secrets of her own, and the victim's brother, who comes over from Wales to collect her body and winds up at the center of a ferocious struggle for truth and survival. The title is no joke. There's much that is graphic and profoundly disturbing here. But Jones rises to each occasion with control and compassion, adeptly blending a story of family demons and obscene depravity with a gripping thriller plot. (Dec.)