Fiction review: five mysteries

MYSTERIES
One finishes an outstanding trilogy with regret, but also, in the case of Rennie Airth's three novels featuring John Madden, with abundant admiration.

Airth introduced Madden in 1999's "River of Darkness" set in 1921, continued with 2004's "The Blood-Dimmed Tide" set in 1932 and now brings the series to a conclusion with the remarkable The Dead of Winter (416 pages, Viking, $25.95).

It's 1944, and Madden, a former British police detective, is living quietly and farming in Surrey. But when Rosa Novak, a Polish refugee who had been working on Madden's farm, is found murdered in London, Madden feels he owes it to her to help his former Scotland Yard colleagues -- and they agree.

The killers in the two previous books were driven by sexual motives, but the villain in "The Dead of Winter" is motivated only by greed, and Madden and his colleagues learn that he has left a trail of death across Europe.

Airth, a native of South Africa and a former journalist, brings a reporter's clarity of prose and exposition to his novels. But most of all, he fills his work with an assured sense of characterization -- Madden is not a character the reader is likely to forget -- and a commanding compassion and humanity. Readers of discriminating taste will find this trilogy -- which should be read in order -- a triumph of the novelist's art.

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Those fated to die young are said to have had no chance of "making old bones." But old bones lie at the heart of Red Bones (392 pages, Minotaur Books, $24.99).

The third installment of Ann Cleeves' projected Shetland Islands quartet finds police detective Jimmy Perez on the island of Whalsay to confront his most complex case to date.

Two young women are conducting preliminary archaeological work at Setter, the farm belonging to elderly Mima Wilson. When they discover a skull, questions arise -- but not as many as when Mima, the victim of a shotgun blast, is discovered dead by grandson Sandy Wilson (one of Perez's assistants). The demise of a second woman ratchets up the urgency of the case, as the humane and intuitive Perez refuses to let the deaths be passed off as accident and suicide.

Cleeves is a master of the stunning twist, and "Red Bones" is no exception; just when the reader thinks the solution is at hand, along comes another possibility. She's also an expert stylist of deceptively spare prose and a creator of entirely realistic characters; this time out, she focuses on Sandy Wilson, thought to be dim and immature but who, under Perez's guidance, becomes one of her most intriguing creations.

Permeated with place -- Cleeves makes the Shetlands vivid in the reader's mind -- and filled with a moral sensibility, "Red Bones" stands as a cautionary tale against letting the past fester into a lethal infection of the soul.

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that the long-dead Jane Austen remains a driving force in the lives of many authors. Such is the case -- to the benefit of those who delight in the cozy mystery -- with Tracy Kiely's debut novel, Murder at Longbourn (308 pages, Minotaur Books, $24.99).

Elizabeth Parker has broken up with her philandering boyfriend and has accepted an invitation to travel from her Northern Virginia home to Cape Cod, where her great-aunt Winnie Reynolds has opened a bed-and-breakfast. There, Elizabeth hopes to spend a quiet New Year's weekend reading -- she and Winnie are rabid Austen fans -- and helping Winnie with a dinner-theater murder party.

But the party comes to an abrupt end when a real murder takes place; the reader's mind shifts from Austen to Agatha Christie as Winnie comes under suspicion -- the odious victim had designs on her inn -- and Elizabeth labors to identify the real killer.

Kiely pays homage to the traditional mystery in this Christie-worthy puzzle, in which you're sure to fall in love not only with the old Cape Cod setting but also with the author's witty take on the old-fashioned whodunit.

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You're without a definitive idea for a thesis, you've had to have your beloved cat put down, you're working temporarily in a corporate snakepit, you've discovered your temporary roommate's murdered body -- and you're suspected of killing him.

Grad students' lives aren't generally this complicated, but Clea Simon makes it all work in Shades of Grey (216 pages, Severn House, $28.95), the first in her projected series featuring Dulcie Schwartz. The author of four books featuring Cambridge, Mass., rock journalist Theda Krakow, Simon steps boldly onto a new path with Harvard student Dulcie.

And though this is a fine whodunit, it's not just another mystery. Simon gives it a hint of the supernatural -- Dulcie thinks the spirit of her late cat, Mr. Grey, is trying to warn and protect her -- as well as subplots involving hacked computers and Gothic novels.

Dulcie's an intriguing and sympathetic lead character, Simon's plot is well-conceived and the feline angle satisfies without being overplayed. And "Shades of Grey" reminds us that our pets are never gone from our hearts. Give this one a blue ribbon.

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In an era when thrillers and conspiracies dominate the list of fiction best-sellers, tranquillity is a quality much desired but seldom found. Discerning readers who seek a refuge from turmoil, though, can find it in Susan Wittig Albert's enchanting series, "The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter."

The sixth entry, The Tale of Applebeck Orchard (320 pages, Berkley Prime Crime, $23.95) finds the beloved children's author and her human and animal friends dealing with a detested change in their villages in England's Lake District in 1910: Surly farmer Adam Harmsworth has barricaded the long-used footpath through his orchard. But why? And what's to be done?

Albert tells this gentle mystery as Potter would have, with color, charm and common sense -- and adds a touch of feminism (involving both humans and badgers) and a hint of romance (Potter and country solicitor Will Heelis become secretly betrothed). The recurring villagers and critters are as engaging as ever, too, as Albert provides solace for the spirit.

Contact Jay Strafford at (804) 649-6698 or .