Run Afoul

Once again the lead character's charm and the authentic picture of 19th-century shipboard life make up for fussy plotting and a surfeit of adverbs in New Zealander Druett's third mystery centered on the U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 (chronicled in Nathaniel Philbrick's Sea of Glory ). When series hero Wiki Coffin, the accomplished half-Maori son of New England shipmaster William Coffin Sr., runs into his father at ports around the world, as they often do, their reunions are warm. But at Rio de Janeiro, their meeting turns grim, for Coffin Sr. is accused of murder, and Wiki, a registered sheriff's deputy in addition to his duties as translator, must find the truth. A respected naval historian, Druett includes enticing bits of Maori culture and language. Despite occasional lapses into pedantry, she makes the vanished world she depicts come alive. (Nov.)