Crimson Thaw

Maine police detective Brock Justice tries to save his flailing career in this promising series launch from Coffin (the John Byron mysteries). While trying to apprehend a murderer, Justice’s partner, Evan Mathers, fatally shoots the suspect’s brother, and Justice’s subsequent testimony leads Mathers to be charged with manslaughter. Justice becomes a pariah among his colleagues and gets transferred to Bangor, where he’s immediately thrown into the deep end. Alongside trainee Chloe Wright, he’s assigned to investigate the bizarre murder of ex-convict Lee Owen, who’s found submerged in a pond and handcuffed to a snowmobile several months after he was reported missing. The vehicle is registered to local physician Keith Phinney, who clams up when Justice and Wright interview him. Before long, other suspects—including a husband Owen had cuckolded and a drug dealer he’d ripped off—also emerge. Coffin’s experience as a detective sergeant in Maine lends the book’s procedural elements a ring of truth, and he paints cops and suspects alike with a fine brush. Fans of Paul Doiron’s Mike Bowditch series should check this out. Agent: Paula Munier, Talcott Notch Literary. (Nov.)