June Publications

Two students with mild Raskolnikov complexes get schooled by the very clever detective inspector Percy Peach in A Little Learning, by Lancastrian J.M. Gregson (To Kill a Wife). When Paul Barnes and Gary Pilkington attempt to burgle the pretentious university head Claptrap Carter, their perfect crime is interrupted by their discovery of his body; with practically everybody on campus a suspect, it will take all Peach's insight to find the culprit amid a tangled web of lies, blackmail and university politics. (Severn, $25.99 256p ISBN 0-7278-5763-0)

Unjustly-disbarred-lawyer-turned-amateur-sleuth Shep Harrington faces the demons of his past while investigating the mysterious death of a famous country singer in Elliot Light's debut, the first volume in the planned Shep Harrington Smalltown Mystery series called Lonesome Song (the sequel, Chain Thinking, is due out this fall). It's a solid mystery with a nostalgic heart; its standout feature, however, may be the blurb section in the back—"offers more food for thought and literacy than the average," raves one reader. (Bancroft [www.bancroftpress.com], $19.95 217p ISBN 1-890862-15-0)

The Curious Conspiracy and Other Crimes gathers 20 previously uncollected stories, most written in the 1950s, in honor of Grand Master Michael Gilbert's 90th birthday. It's a "catholic" compilation, writes Gilbert (Roller Coaster), whose stories range all over in time and place and whose main characters might be anyone from a sweet-seeming but murderous old housewife to a battled-hardened bandit leader who goes by the name of El Torino. (Crippen & Landru [P.O. Box 9315, Norfolk, Va. 23505], $42 235p 1-885941-72-2; $17 paper -73-0)

Cyclist Will Ross barely has time to grieve for the loss of his beloved wife, Cheryl: a manipulative reporter is after him to tell his "emotional barn burner" of a story and another TV personality fond of "pyrotechnic creativity" wants to usurp Will's spot on TV6's sports beat. And that's just the beginning: Will soon learns that whoever killed his wife was actually after him, and that both he and his baby daughter are in mortal danger in Greg Moody's Dead Air. (Velo Press [PGW, dist.], $14.95 paper 336p ISBN 1-931382-03-4)

The murder of a woman running a notorious prostitution ring (with some high profile clients) leaves her rural Minnesota neighbors asking all kinds of questions—most importantly, where is the body? Hooker, Dean L. Hovey's sophomore police procedural (after Where Evil Hides), zeroes in on local politics and corruption as Undersheriff Dan Williams and his team face closed-mouth citizens and meddling politicians. (J-Press [4796 N. 126th St., White Bear Lake, Minn. 55110] $14.95 paper 264p ISBN 1-930922-03-5)