Retribution: A Lew Fonesca Mystery (Lew Fonesca Novels)
So far, prolific Kaminsky has given us 20 mysteries starring an old-time sleuth in Hollywood (Toby Peters); 13 featuring a melancholic cop in Moscow (Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov); and 5 with a somewhat depressed Jewish cop in Chicago (Abe Lieberman).Retributionis the second (fittingly, afterVengeance) featuring new series character Lew Fonesca, an extremely depressed process server in Sarasota. Kaminsky's gifts--for visceral scene-setting ("Sarasota is a beautiful orange blanket over a layer of darkness"), for dialogue that has perfect pitch, and for telling details (this depressed hero finds solace in old movies, especiallyMildred Pierce)--are much in evidence here. So is his penchant for a fast-moving plot; this one brings back the troubled girl ofVengeancein a nail-biting missing-persons case. This isn't Kaminsky's best--his new hero is too depressed (his only goal is to be left alone) to be intriguing or believable. But a Kaminsky shortfall  is still superior to most mysteries.Connie FletcherCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved