The Accidental Pallbearer: An Eliot Conte Mystery (Melville International Crime)
Novelist and literary critic Lentricchia inaugurates a new private-eye series with this often-nasty but fairly intriguing story featuring former academic (former, by way of an unfortunate incident involving a UCLA provost) Eliot Conte. Like Lentricchia, Conte is a native of the upstate New York city of Utica, where most of this novel is set (the balance takes place in equally grim Troy, New York). Son of a local political boss and fixer, and friend (virtual brother) of the city’s African American police chief, Conte—whom we hope is developed more deeply as the series progresses—here is embroiled, along with Chief Robinson, in a tale involving old and new killings, sexual scandal, and an intricate web of interrelated local crimes. Lentricchia captures the feel of upstate New York (Richard Russo territory) and of Italian American culture within a familiar genre, with predictable grit and wit. We hope to see more of Conte and perhaps of his promising romantic interest, a Troy policewoman. --Mark Levine