No mystery will grab you if the character is a dud

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Dec 14, 2008 | by Roberta Alexander

I like living, breathing, interesting protagonists and value authors who create engaging characters.

-- "Revelation" by C.J. Sansom (Penguin, $25.95, 550 pages)

Not many hefty tomes are page-turners. But this one is.

If you ever wondered what it was like to live through an upheaval such as the rise of Protestantism in 16th century England, now you can find out. Barrister Matthew Shardlake would like nothing better than to be able to stop tiptoeing around others' inflamed religious sensibilities, but he cannot, particularly after a good friend is the victim of a bizarre murder.

Cromwell, Matthew's former patron, is gone, and aging King Henry VIII wants to marry the recently widowed Catherine Parr, who is known to be sympathetic to church reform. Meanwhile, Matthew, who has tried not to allow his hunchback stance to define his life, defends a teenage religious fanatic who is confined in Bedlam hospital.

There are more grotesque deaths as the story unfolds.

The book is well-written and engrossing; the three earlier books in the series are equally absorbing. They remind us that religious differences have torn societies apart, something to contemplate during our own fractious time.

-- "A Job to Kill For" by Janice Kaplan (Touchstone Books, $24, 296 pages)

Lacy Fields is a Los Angeles decorator who has the misfortune to be present when her wealthy young client dies.

Lacy pokes around once her best friend becomes the chief suspect. The hunt takes her to the UCLA campus, and a physics professor with a secret society. There's plenty happening on the home front as well, with her surgeon husband and three children, one of whom turns out to be a help in the investigation.

The real fun of this book is its hip yet good-natured skewering of the Los Angeles culture. We've got both a puzzle to be solved and an attitude to be enjoyed.

Unfortunately, there's a little flaw too: At one point, Lacy injures her foot so badly she can hardly drive, yet an hour later she's running all over a hotel, and we never hear another word about the injured foot.

-- "Damnation Falls" by Edward Wright (St. Martin's, $24.95, 339 pages)

There's a subset of mysteries following this pattern: Protagonist has left hometown for career in the city, where something bad happens. Protagonist returns to hometown, where somebody gets murdered.

Wright has taken this formula and created a readable and engaging story of newspaperman Randall Wilkes, who agrees to write a biography of longtime friend Sonny McMahan, the former Tennessee governor. But then McMahan's mother is murdered, and hers is not the last body to be found.

Is her death related to the recent discovery of bones of soldiers from the Civil War? Is Randall's professor father's interest in that war, and a possible local museum, a factor in the case? The local newspaper also has an interest. And Randall's relationship with Sonny is strained by developments.

This is a well-written and engaging book about a man struggling for a second chance.

-- "Justice Denied" by J.A. Jance (Harper, $9.99, 435 pages)

Jance rarely disappoints, and her stories about a Seattle homicide investigator are a compelling blend of police procedural and personal angst.

J.P. Beaumont's boss, the state attorney general, assigns him to a secret investigation of the death of a former drug dealer. Who would want to kill a young man who has turned his life around? Meanwhile, his girlfriend Mel is working on another secret probe involving the deaths of registered sex offenders.

The two cases eventually intersect. Watching J.P. and Mel work it all out, as well as cope with changes in their relationship, will keep you turning the pages.

"It's a Mystery" appears the second Sunday of the month. Reach Roberta at ralex711@yahoo.com.