Panther Gap

This impressive crime novel from Edgar winner McLaughlin (Bearskin) centers on the unexpected consequences of a bequest. Siblings Summer and Bowman Girard have grown apart as adults. Bowman has settled in Costa Rica, where he lives a solitary existence and seeks some form of enlightenment. Summer still works on the family cattle ranch in Colorado. Then they learn that their grandfather Martin, “a minor robber baron and reputed mob associate,” had a secret Swiss bank account that he’s left them, which would radically change both their lives. But to collect, the siblings must attend a meeting at a Denver bank in person. News of the windfall may have reached Jake Salifano, a former mob enforcer and enemy of Martin’s, who believes the money is rightfully his. Though Salifano is incarcerated for murdering two confidential informants, he remains a threat, having assumed control of a prison gang and amassed “a cult-like following inside and outside the system.” Teaming up to stay alive, Bowman and Summer must evade additional dangers, including a Mexican drug cartel, to collect the inheritance. McLaughlin does a fine job making his characters’ reactions to traumatic events and perils believable. Fans of Breaking Bad will be satisfied. (Apr.)