In Edgar-winner Wilson's solid eighth Benjamin Justice novel (after 2006's Rhapsody in Blood
), two characters come out of the woodwork after the disgraced West Hollywood reporter publishes a revealing memoir: Lance, a young ex-marine bent on instigating a fight with Benjamin, and Jason Holt, a manipulative middle-aged man with a zealous interest in spiders. Shamed years earlier after his Pulitzer Prize was rescinded because he made up his sources, Benjamin struggles to untangle these two figures' mysterious ties to him. Meanwhile, he has to deal with a former rival reporter, the unscrupulous Cathryn Conroy, who's intent on digging up more truth than he chose to admit in his book. Wilson gives his dynamic hero a laundry list of self-destructive behaviors to work out, but the scenes in which Benjamin confronts either Jason, Lance or Cathryn appear in a systematic rotation for too long before they advance the story. (Dec.)
