Night Blind
Thriller writer Sherer (Death on a Budget, 2010) renders a sympathetic lead character and an engaging, if somewhat disjointed, story line in his latest novel, set largely in Seattle. Things aren’t going so well for Blake Sanders, who fell from professional grace after being accused of embezzling money. One of his close relatives committed suicide. Now he makes his living delivering newspapers. One morning, Sanders stops a depressed and desperate woman from jumping off a bridge. In the months that follow, he monitors her recovery, even though she seems to want nothing to do with him. Being a delivery man is neither lucrative nor glamorous, but Sanders keeps up his morale by reminding himself of the job’s perks, which include befriending Mildred Babcock, a lonely but spirited elderly woman along his route. When Babcock is found stabbed to death in her home, Sanders, inexplicably, becomes the prime suspect. Sherer’s subplot, involving the deadly deeds of a French intelligence agent, doesn’t quite mesh with the tale of likable, albeit flawed, Sanders. --Allison Block