No Remorse

With railroads cutting into his post-Civil War riverboat business, Captain Luke Williamson forms the Big River Detective Agency with two friends, often-drunk Masey Baldridge and reformed whore Salina Tyner. Their fourth historical adventure (after No Justice, 1996) offers Brewer's fine atmosphere, although the plotting here is secondary, as it follows the Mississippi River from St. Louis to New Orleans. The unlikely partners take on a seemingly impossible case after Williamson's longtime business foe, shipping tycoon Hudson Van Geer, is shot to death. His son Stewart confessed, handing the murder weapon to police. But Stewart is weirdly uncommunicative, and his mother hires the agency to prove his innocence before the hanging, which is scheduled to occur within the week. Williamson, Baldridge and Tyner find plenty of possible suspects, quickly learning that Hudson Van Geer had been suspicious of Stewart's young wife, Claire. Another Van Geer son, Robert, who cheerfully admits despising his father, broke away from the family business and joined the hated railroad builders. Even with elements of voodoo and complex land dealings thrown in, the answers to the puzzle are painfully obvious and few readers will likely be surprised. Despite that flaw, Brewer demonstrates a fine feel for the Reconstruction period and for his intriguing characters, thrown together along the Mississippi River. (Aug.)