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Brief reviews, May 6

Published May 6, 2005 at midnight

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THRILLERS

The Closers

By Michael Connelly (Little, Brown, $26.95).

Grade A

Authors like Michael Connelly don't need the slight attention a review gives their books; people are going to buy the book anyway.. I'm reviewing Connelly's new book anyway - because it's wicked good, and, hey, it's great to get paid to read something you would have read anyway.

LAPD detective Heironymous (Harry) Bosch has more professional lives than a soap opera actor. Once a cop, then a retired cop working cases on his own and now a cop again, Bosch is starting his first day back on the job in the cold cases division. Through the help of his old partner, Kizmin Rider, an black lesbian and close associate of the new chief, Bosch may be in the best spot to use his formidable sleuthing skills.

Bosch and Rider have been provided with a break in the form of DNA evidence in a case dating to 1988. A match has come back on blood found inside a gun that was used to kill 16-year-old Rebecca Verloren. At some point before or during the girl's murder, the slide on the pistol "bit" a boy named Roland Mackey, 18 years old at the time, and left a spot of his blood in the gun.

It isn't enough evidence to arrest Mackey, who has gone onto a life of petty crime since the girl's death. Bosch suspects that there may have been more than one person involved in the crime and that it may have been motivated by racial hatred. Rebecca Verloren's mother was white and her father black. And Mackey had been in contact with others who had professed racial intolerance and committed crimes because of it. Even the year 1988 points to the possibility of a hate crime, as the numbers "88" signify the letters HH, short for "Heil Hitler" to some neo-Nazis.

Along with his trademark detailed look at criminal investigations, Connelly shows us the emotional impact crime has on those left to deal with it. The parents of the young victim are shown in all their anguish - intense stuff, which is why Connelly's books are so popular.

Peter Mergendahl

MYSTERY

I Right the Wrongs

By Dylan Schaffer (Bloomsbury, $23.95).

Grade: B+

I Right the Wrongs is a wry mystery featuring a sleuth devoted to the works of Barry "I Write the Songs" Manilow. Now, the words "wry" and "Manilow" have probably never before appeared in the same sentence. Give all the credit for this astonishing breakthrough to Dylan Schaffer, whose Misdemeanor Man novels pit a dedicated Manilow fan against the forces of evil in fictional Santa Rita, Calif., with amusing results.

Gordon Seegerman, whose day job as a public defender puts him in the criminal courts defending ne'er-do-wells against loitering and shoplifting charges, is a mensch. He takes care of his Alzheimer's-crazed dad and worries about whether he has the gene for the disease that afflicts his pop. He pines for an ex-girlfriend and fends off rumors that he's dating a hot new TV reporter. He lives to play Manilow in a garage band - "We don't do dress-up or camp. We don't do irony. And we don't do covers. We do homage."

Tapped to defend a high school football star against dog-napping charges (he borrowed a rival team's mascot), all Gordon wants to do is get the case settled before an upcoming gig in Las Vegas. The Mandys are scheduled to play the day before Manilow himself does a show, and they're hoping their idol will stop by and bless their act.

But soon the semi-prominent case escalates into a murder investigation and a trip back in time to a cop shooting that involved Gordon's dad, a retired detective and not-so-nice-guy. The complicated plot bogs down slightly in the middle. And some of the characters tend toward the two-dimensional, although many of the secondary characters are off-beat and interesting enough to merit more development, especially band members Preet Singh and Terry Fretwater, who wear a turban and dreadlocks, respectively.

You may learn more about Manilow than you ever thought you'd want to know, but it's all conveyed with unblinking sincerity that's drop-dead funny. I Right the Wrongs is mystery lite with a goofy twist, offering lots of laughs for those of us whose sense of humor is on the dry side.

UNREAL WORLDS

Here, There & Everywhere

By Chris Roberson (Prometheus, $25 hardcover; $15 paperback).

Grade: B-

In his "Author's Notes" at the end of the book, Chris Roberson explains that Here, There & Everywhere started as a 30,000-word novella written over a Labor Day weekend. After some positive criticism, it was expanded to 55,000 words, then another 25,000.

Therein lies the problem. Even though this time-travel novel is intended to be episodic, the episodes don't fit together as seamlessly as they might. For example, the story starts with a "Prelude," which features a reporter who discovers that a beautiful woman in attendance at several Beatles concerts through the years never seems to age. The reporter and the Beatles, who appear to have more than a cursory function, are never mentioned again.

Nevertheless, Here, There & Everywhere is a fast, fun read, and Roberson has used a modern scientific theory to defeat the time-travel paradox.

When Roxanne Bonaventure was 10 years old, she came across an old woman, bleeding in the forest. When Roxanne tried to help, the old woman gave her a strange bracelet and disappeared.

The child soon discovers that the bracelet, called "the Sophia," enables her to travel back and forward through time and space. It also protects her from harm.

As she experiments with her new acquisition, Roxanne learns that her trips to the past have no effect on the present, because each change she causes merely starts a new timeline, so that there are an infinite number of universes depending how choices have been made. Roxanne's Sofia gives her the ability to travel in any of them.

Roberson takes Roxanne back to the Stone Age and forward to the end of time, but the most enjoyable of her adventures takes place in Victorian England, where she does some Sherlockian detective work.

Although, the Sophia gives Roxanne some joy and much excitement, she's unable to find a meaningful relationship with another person until the author introduces a unique character in the somewhat contrived conclusion.

Mark Graham

CHILDREN

Piglet and Mama

By Margaret Wild (Harry N. Abrams Inc., $14.95, ages 2 - 5).

Grade: A

A little piglet who lost its mama provides the perfect message for this Mother's Day.

When she discovers that she's lost her mama, Piglet sets off to find her. Along the way, she meets other farm animals who tell her that her "mama's not here" and then offer another activity.

But Piglet rejects cuddling with Duck, making a daisy chain with Sheep, playing chase with Donkey, rolling in the mud with Dog, dancing in the daffodils with Horse and snoozing in the sun with Cat.

With its predictable pattern, the text is perfect for young readers. Piglet always calls for her mama, and the animals always respond the same way, followed by the same "But Piglet wanted her mama" throughout the book. Piglet's most plaintive "Oiiiiiink!" brings Mama, who had been searching for her baby.

Then, in the happiest of endings, the two cuddle, make a daisy chain, play chase, roll in the mud, dance in the daffodils and snooze side by side, making the book a sweet celebration of that special bond mothers can have with their children.

Natalie Soto