Best known as a series author (the well-received Neil Gulliver and Steve Marriner mysteries: Hot Paint
, etc.), Levinson now spins a novel that not only stands alone but stands tall. Writing with considerable invention, grace and energy, the author, who's a national director at-large of Mystery Writers of America, tells an intricate and emotionally potent tale of murder and doublecross. His antiheroine here is one KC McClory, widow of Frankie McClory, a slain IRA honcho, who's asked by her dead husband's malevolent brother to smuggle guns into America to give to the Plowman, an IRA assassin who aims to kill a world leader in exchange for moneys flowing to the IRA; in the U.S., KC is to stay at the Pasadena home of Judge Osborne and his family, who raised her. Credible but terrible complications ensue almost at once. KC, we learn, is in fact an agent of TRIAD, a U.S. counterterrorism operation, but TRIAD no longer trusts her; some of the novel's tension arises from KC's juggling the wishes of the IRA and TRIAD. More arises when an assassin disguised as a priest picks her up on the train to Pasadena and tries to kill her—his fatal mistake; and when the investigating cop in the homicide turns out to be Peter Osborne, the Judge's son and KC's old flame, the complications grow byzantine, eventually putting KC and those she loves at great risk. This is a dense, dark, beautifully wrought tale of love and betrayal, sin and retribution, offering serious suspense, terrific twists and full-blooded characters. Levinson may not have an Irish name but he carries the soul of the Irish poets in his pen and in his heart—only a dead man wouldn't relish this read. (Dec.)
