Short takes: Thrillers

Reviewed by MICHELE HEWITSON

William Brodrick: The Sixth Lamentation

This a sad and lovely book, a detective story which puts back together pieces of lost lives rather than piecing together a crime.

Eduard Schwermann is a minor Nazi war criminal, a lowly lackey who, as many ordinary people did, betrayed other people. In his case those people were his friends involved in the Paris Resistance, protecting and smuggling Jewish children out of the country.

As Agnes Aubert lies dying - motor neurone disease rapidly robbing her of speech - Schwermann seeks sanctuary in a priory in Suffolk.

Many years ago these two unlikely people were connected. This is a story about how lies and forgiveness can be strange allies, and an examination of whether one kind act can erase a mass betrayal. It is movingly told and, yes, a thrilling read.

Little Brown, $34.95

* * *

Michael Connelly: Lost Night

Harry Bosch is back. At the end of Connelly's last Bosch book, City of Bones, the detective left the LAPD. But one unsolved case refuses to leave him. Four years ago a young woman was murdered during a robbery on a movie set, and "there is no end of things in the heart". At night Bosch sees pathways connecting those he has "loved and hated and helped and hurt".

At the heart of this case will be more hurting, perhaps a little helping. But probably not for Bosch. He is still on his tormented pathway. Connelly is back writing better than ever about good and evil and all the melancholy shades of blue in between.

Orion, $35

* * *

Nicci French: Land Of The Living

When Abbie Devereaux wakes up she is lying in the dark, tied up with a hood over her face. She doesn't know where she is or how she came to be here. She imagines an accident. Is she in a hospital? Has she lost her memory? The mind does not want to imagine a worse reality.

That reality is that she has been taken by a man who has kidnapped and killed other young women.

Abbie manages to escape. But she has no memory of how she was taken, or what had happened immediately before she was stolen. Her life seems to have been stolen. Nobody believes her story.

French (the husband/wife writing team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French) is expert at conjuring our worst fears. Genuinely frightening stuff in unexpected ways.

Penguin, $23.95

* * *

James Siegel: Derailed

Here's a warning for you boys: if a temptress tries to pick you up on public transport, go straight home to your wife and children. But when silly Charles Schine meets Lucinda on the train and goes to a hotel room with her, he doesn't know that he's going to be in very big trouble indeed.

Lucinda is a very, very bad girl who works with a really nasty man. Together they blackmail silly boys. Charles thinks he's in for a bit of hanky-panky. What he's in for is a life of torment. Charles is about to put his entire family in danger. He is, wait for it, about to be derailed.

More twisty than a rollercoaster, this is a well-plotted middle-of-the-road thriller with a morality tale in the tail.

Timewarner, $34.95

* * *

Steven Saylor: Have You Seen Dawn?

SET in Amethyst, Texas, where Rue Dunwitty (silly name) has returned home to see her wheelchair-bound grandmother, this is a menacing little story of small-town fear, family secrets and good ol' Texan red-necks.

A young girl has gone missing - the Dawn of the title - in a place where the biggest excitements are the local football team and the weather.

Don't let that ridiculous cover put you off: this is a pretty good, pretty tricky yarn from the author of the Roma sub Rosa series.

Constable, $59.95