The Kindness of Strangers: An Amos Parisman Mystery

The discovery of a homeless woman’s body in a dumpster in Amos Parisman’s neighborhood kick starts Weinberger’s smoothly paced third outing for the elderly Los Angeles PI (after 2020’s Reason to Kill). Three more similar slayings follow. In between are two additional, seemingly unrelated murders. The common denominator? The victims were all connected to the same Rapture-centered church for the forgotten. The book has all the characteristics of traditional noir—harsh urban street life versus cloistered affluence; cheap dives and hangouts; an eclectic mix of eccentric secondary characters—but the empathetic Parisman, a retired detective with a heart, and his LAPD friend investigating the murders, Lt. William Malloy, who’s considering retirement, aren’t the usual noir antiheroes. Parisman and Malloy share and compare values and philosophy, perhaps a little more frequently than necessary. Folded nicely into the dizzying plot is Parisman’s backstory and that of his significant other, Mara Worthington, both of whom have spouses in failing health. Weinberger offers a gentle counterbalance to Walter Mosley’s more hard-knuckled Easy Rawlins series, likewise set in L.A. (Apr.)