Lead, So I Can Follow

""Changes on the St. Croix, when you're paddling with a slow current, are so gradual you seem at times to be motionless."" So proclaims Carl Wilcox, protagonist of this deceptively simple new novel by Adams (winner of a Shamus for The Man Who Was Taller than God), as he canoes down the river. ""As you round a long bend, an entirely fresh view slowly opens up."" Just so, the narrative of Adams's solid whodunit allows the meandering course of its Depression-era sleuth to slowly unfurl unexpected plot twists. A drifter and sign painter, Carl is honeymooning in Minnesota with his new wife, Hazel (the librarian he courted in 1998's No Badge, No Gun), when they are confronted by the deaths of two young men: a talented musician whose body the couple finds after it falls from a cliff; and a failed farmer whose apparent suicide is questioned by his wealthy, loving grandfather. Knowing Carl's reputation as a detective, the local mayor offers him a few dollars to snoop around. Then the grieving grandfather ups the ante to $2000--a serious nest egg, given the general shortage of work and cash. So Carl and Hazel begin paddling along, talking with anyone and everyone, until they arrive at a solution to the problems at hand. Although Wilcox's bed-hopping has been slowed down by marriage, sex still plays an active role in the series. The dead musician was one of many young men who pursued a sleek blonde named Kat Bacon--and Carmen Pryke, the wife of the man who killed himself, is another hot number. Period details about cars, clothes, food and social customs are, as usual, so sharp that the rambling narration and the novel's less-than-surprising conclusions don't spoil the pleasure. (Dec.)