Final Stroke

A stroke-impaired former PI, Steve Babe, struggles to solve a murder in Beres’s muddled second thriller (after The President’s Nemesis). Steve is recuperating in a Chicago rehab facility known to its patients as Hell in the Woods when an elderly fellow patient, Marjorie Gianetti, dies after apparently slipping and falling in a hallway late one evening. Suspecting foul play, Steve starts to investigate, despite his mental confusion. His efforts attract the attention of both the killer and a shadowy pair of intelligence agents who may be attempting to cover up an old political scandal. Predictable action sequences, including an abduction and numerous gun battles, follow. The revelation of the motive for the conspiracy, improbably centering on Jimmy Carter, may cause some unintended chuckles. A convoluted plot and awkward prose combine to undercut the author’s sensitive portrait of his hero coping with his disability. (June)