A Killer Past

A predictable plot and one-dimensional supporting characters mar this crime novel from Soule (Haunted). No one in quiet Rivershore, Mich., knows of 74-year-old Mary Harrington’s past. The widow with a grown son and one granddaughter moved there some 44 years before to open a bookstore and marry the town dentist. But her training as an assassin for a shadowy government agency comes back when local thugs try to rob her. The still-fit Mary fights back, leaving her assailants battered. At first, Sgt. Jack Rossini doubts that an old woman could beat up these punks, but his curiosity intensifies when he can’t find any trace of Mary before she came to Rivershore. Meanwhile, gang members continue to harass the feisty Mary. Rossini proves not to be an insightful cop, but an incompetent busybody who seems to lack any other cases. The arrival of a former flame from Mary’s past adds more clichés to this weak story. (Sept.)