Ransom for a Killing

In the detecting team of Chicago cop Jeremy Ransom and Emily Charters, Jeremy's elderly and beloved friend, there exists an unlikely yet beguiling pairing of the young and the not so young, the streetwise and the sweetly intuitive. Charters's razor-sharp mind flourishes despite her limited frame of reference; Ransom is unusually erudite and proper for a city cop. Ransom does the bulk of the legwork; in this absorbing case, he's intent on unraveling the interlocking destinies of Laura Shay and Ben Harvey, the man whom Laura accused of rape nine years ago. Ben was convicted and imprisoned, but the results of a new DNA test have now set him free. Shortly after his release, Laura is found murdered and Ben, naturally, falls under suspicion. Ben has been traumatized by nearly a decade of incarceration, while Laura was known to be both promiscuous and a second-generation drunk, who mysteriously came into some money soon after Ben's conviction. After Laura's mother dies an untimely death, Ransom is convinced that finding the identity of the true rapist will lead him to the murderer. Charters doesn't have much of a presence in this fifth in the series (which follows Ransom for a Holiday, 1997) beyond noting an odd turn of phrase in Ben's first televised interview after his release. The mutual devotion between Ransom and Charters continues to be both chaste and charming, however, and contrasts dramatically with the tone of the plot, which features doings that are notably darker and tougher than those in earlier books in the series. (Dec.)