The Outsider

At the start of Culver’s intricate sequel to The Abbey, Det. Ash Rashid comes home one evening to find Indianapolis crime boss Konstantin Bukoholov waiting for him in his backyard. Bukoholov offers the detective $5,000 in cash to look into a hit-and-run accident earlier in the day that killed a close friend of Ash and his family, Cassandra Johnson. Ash soon learns that, although Cassandra’s body is in the morgue and her six-year-old daughter, Lisa, is in the custody of Child Services, no one in the police department has heard of Cassandra, let alone filed a homicide report. Meanwhile, Susan Mercer, Ash’s boss in the prosecutor’s office where he works part-time, needs his help in the trial of a Muslim immigrant from Iraq accused of killing a cop. Ash’s struggles to resist the temptations of alcohol, forbidden by his Muslim faith, add depth to his character. Readers will be curious to see what happens to him in his next outing. (May)