Deadly Depths

Dobbyn (the Knight and Devlin series) tests readers’ capacities to suspend disbelief in this over-the-top thriller featuring law professor Matthew Shane. A former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, Shane relishes the comparative ease of his current job at Hawthorne University Law School in Massachusetts. That changes with the death of his friend, archeology professor Barrington Holmes, who’s found in his office with one of his wrists slashed. Though the police believe it’s a suicide, Shane is asked by the university’s scandal-averse president to investigate. The cleaning lady who found Holmes’s body gives Shane a note she found at the scene—“Matthew. Sorry. No other way”—and he discovers additional evidence suggesting Holmes was murdered. Before long, Shane is sniffing around a shadowy organization called the Monkey’s Paw Society, whose members are bent on locating “some kind of pirate treasure” and often turn up dead before they’re able to do so. Convinced that joining the group’s ranks will lead to answers about his friend’s death, Shane embarks on a complicated adventure involving killer baboons, deadly alligators, and a handful of swashbuckling clichés. The globe-trotting plot may appeal to fans of Steve Berry, provided they can tolerate the unmemorable characters and unremarkable prose. This treasure hunt fails to turn up gold. (Aug.)