The Gravedigger's Ball: A Coletti Novel

Jones's sequel to 2010's The Last Confession gets off to a strong start. When Philadelphia homicide detective Mike Coletti visits the grave of police profiler Mary Smithson, who betrayed him in the previous book, in a doomed attempt at closure, he's surprised to meet Smithson's half-sister, Lenore Wilkinson. He's even more surprised when someone takes a shot at them. After the dust settles, they find Clarissa Bailey, who was showing Wilkinson the cemetery, dead in an open grave. At the grave's edge is a scrap of paper with a quote from Poe's The Raven; in a nearby tree is a "black, crowlike" bird. Coletti later learns that some scholars believe that the poem is coded evidence of its author's supernatural ability to cross between worlds. When Bailey's murderer claims another life, the popular press dubs the killer the Gravedigger. Jones maintains suspense throughout, but an over-the-top ending will please few. (Oct.)