Find Her a Grave

In the latest Alan Bernhardt mystery, following Except for the Bones , the San Francisco actor/director and part-time sleuth is absent for nearly the first third of the tale. By the time he comes on stage, an imprisoned mobster has died and secretly left behind some valuables to a woman named Louise, his daughter by a former mistress. The new capo de capo isn't glad to learn about this cache of jewels. Louise tells her 20-year-old daughter, Angela, that the mob may be looking for them and the legacy, which they have to dig up from its hiding place; Angela approaches Alan for help. In short order, suave Chinese killer, Brian Chin, is in on the doings as well. Wilcox, who also writes a series about a persistent San Francisco cop named Hastings, gradually establishes an authentic mobster milieu, offering the required mix of brutality and honor. The action accelerates as Alan, Angela and others trace their way through a series of betrayals and allegiances, including an abduction, but it all leads to a somewhat loosely tied ending. (Nov.)