Late Rain

May 24, 2010
Kostoff's disjointed noir thriller centers on the efforts of Ben Decovic, a former homicide detective in Ohio, to rebound from the death of his wife, gunned down in a shooting spree, by trying to solve a highprofile murder. Now a beat cop in Magnolia Beach, S.C., Ben insinuates himself into the search for the killer of Stanley Tedros, a soft-drink magnate whose signature product, Julep, had recently become a national hit. Unknown to Ben, the victim's nephew's avaricious wife, Corinne, who wanted Stanley to accept a lucrative offer to sell his company, hired the hit man involved. Ben ends up getting personally invested in the case when he starts sleeping with the daughter of a witness to the murder whose Alzheimer's prevented him from communicating what he saw. While Kostoff (The Long Fall) avoids a pat ending, his protagonist's lack of depth makes this a less than memorable read.

July 1, 2010
Corrine Tedros decides her elderly uncle-in-law, Stanley, is standing in her way when he refuses to sell his successful South Carolina company to the highest bidder; working through a shady lawyer, she hires a killer to take care of the problem. Jack Carson, a man suffering from Alzheimers disease, witnesses the murder but cant describe the killer. Meanwhile, Ben Decovic, formerly a homicide detective in Ryland, Ohio, is now a patrolman for the Magnolia Beach Police Department in South Carolina, where he is attempting to recover from a personal tragedy. Although Corrine has made sure she has an alibi, Decovic is suspicious of her reactions and delves into her past, which she has gone to great lengths to conceal. Then Decovic becomes romantically involved with Jacks daughter, Anne, and events begin to spiral out of control. Kostoff, author of the well-received The Long Fall (2003), returns to crime fiction with a promising series debut starring a principled cop who is beginning to heal himself.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)