The Coal Black Asphalt Tomb: A Berger and Mitry Mystery

In Edgar-winner Handler’s warm and cozy 10th mystery featuring movie critic Mitch Berger and Master Sgt. Des Mitry, resident state trooper of Dorset, Conn. (after 2012’s The Snow White Christmas Cookie), the plan of newly elected selectwoman Glynis Fairchild-Forniaux to widen and regrade Dorset’s main street upsets a lot of people, including newspaper publisher Clyde “Buzzy” Shaver and former selectman Bob Paffin. When the road work unearths a long-buried corpse, the project grinds to a halt and Mitry’s job heats up. The body is easily identified as Bob Paffin’s older brother, Lance, missing and presumed dead since 1967. Mitry and Berger have to penetrate a code of silence that involves many of Dorset’s leading citizens, among whom are U.S. Congressman Luke Cahoon, Paffin, Shaver, and numerous women wronged by Lance. The affable Burger mines town gossip, and Mitry digs into some sordid town history en route to the satisfying resolution of the murder case. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency. (Mar.)