Dead Man Blues

House (Lark Ascending, as Silas House) pivots from literary fiction to crime fiction with this solid 1950s-set whodunit. Dave Hendricks was the mayor of Shady Grove, a small town on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee, for seven years before his best friend, county sheriff Victor Burns, started an affair with Dave’s wife, Janet, and Dave entered a downward spiral that ended up costing him his job. Now, Dave has divorced Janet and receded from public life, opting instead for a quiet existence on a houseboat with his dog. The past rears its head, however, when Dave hears screams from a nearby fishing camp and rushes there to find Esau Campbell, the sleazy head of the camp, stabbed to death in the shower house, “Sins of the Father” scrawled in red paint on a nearby wall. Victor arrives a short time later and, despite his and Dave’s bad blood, asks for his old friend’s help to catch the killer. It’s a well-worn setup, but House makes the most of it, plausibly dramatizing Dave and Victor’s gradual reconciliation while maintaining taut suspense and introducing plenty of suspects. It’s a page-turner. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary. (Oct.)