Duplicity

The spark for this entertaining novel is, well, novel. A Washington D.C. criminology professor proposes having her students study actual cold-case files. Good experience, and they might even catch a killer. An offer to head the project is made to retired D.C. cop Brick Kavanagh, who's been cooling down since his fierce adventure in Relentless (2019). The first case seems an anomaly: a hit and run. Still, there are puzzles. Why has the name of the lone eyewitness been redacted? Why was the investigation suddenly halted? Before answers come, Wilson drops the whole enterprise and whips up another narrative. Brick's cop friend's wife and two children have vanished, and everyone on the force is marshalled to help with the search. This proves to be a good story well told, but it has nothing to do with the cold case. But Wilson offers such a delightful reading experience that it doesn't matter, and both plot lines are nicely resolved. Wilson's laconic prose has an undercurrent that keeps one reading, even when Brick is discoursing on Chicago-style pizza or the advantages of drinking Guinness in Ireland.

Wilson's excellent sequel to Relentless finds Brick Kavanagh, a former Washington, D.C., police detective, back home after three months in Ireland, where he was recovering from the previous book's traumatic events. Now, at 42, he's ready to try something new. One possibility, suggested by Grace Alexander, a professor at a local university, is for him to teach a seminar on cold cases to students of criminology. Grace even has a real case in mind--the hit-and-run death of a grad student--though it's complicated by the prime suspect having diplomatic immunity. Then, on a weekend in Chicago with a flight attendant he met in Ireland, Brick hears that the wife and infant twins of his friend and former partner, Ron Hayes, have vanished, possibly kidnapped. Back in D.C., Brick lends Ron his wholehearted support, even as some disturbing information about his friend surfaces in the course of the investigation. Never mind, as Brick and Ron admit, that dumb luck and coincidence result in satisfying resolutions to both cases: it's a cracking good time. One doesn't have to be a mystery fan to relish this. (Oct.)