Cold Island

In this promising if familiar series launch, Colt (the Andy Roark mysteries) puts his New England upbringing and experience as a police officer to good use. Beleaguered Massachusetts state trooper Tommy Kelly, who’s been clashing with his boss while his marriage crumbles, has just been assigned a gruesome investigation on Nantucket. Recent construction has unearthed the 35-year-old remains of abused child Nick Steuben, and Kelly is tasked with figuring out how he died, despite his aversion to such cases as the father of two boys. To make things more difficult, Kelly is paired with Nantucket police detective Jo Harris, who’s frosty to off-islanders on her best days. As the pair pore over missing persons files and get the cold shoulder from the island’s tight-lipped residents, Colt mixes in chapters set in 1981, which follow a series of boys who vanished the same year as Nick. Some of Colt’s dialogue clangs, and the plot is littered with perhaps one too many red herrings, but he enlivens his standard setup with convincing local color and a surprisingly complex psychological portrait of his lead. There’s enough here to make police procedural fans look forward to the follow-up. Agent: Cynthia Manson, Cynthia Manson Literary. (Sept.)