Murder Song

A psychopath's killings converge with organized-crime efforts to wipe out a crooked financier before he talks in this taut, suspenseful addition to the series featuring Australia's detective-inspector Scobie Malone. Recent murders in and around Sydney display a common thread: two decades earlier, the victims, then police cadets, had been instrumental in the expulsion of another cadet, Frank Blizzard. The remaining members of the group are Malone, opera singer Sebastian Waldorf and Brian Boru O'Brien, a shady character under pressure from mobsters and crooked politicians for whom he has laundered money. O'Brien, who is having a secret affair with the prime minister's wife, narrowly misses an underworld hit man's bullet. While Malone and his colleagues launch a search for Blizzard, missing for years, the three potential victims develop a strange friendship and undergo changes in personality and life goals. With convincing characterization and a realistic portrayal of Australian life, veteran writer Cleary ( High Road to China ) has produced an absorbing tale. (Dec.)