cover image Voyeur

Voyeur

Daniel Judson, Minotaur, $25.99 (272p) ISBN 978-0-312-38361-9

While this gritty stand-alone crime novel from Shamus-winner Judson (The Violet Hour) may offer nothing new, it covers familiar terrain well. In 2003, while on surveillance in Manhattan's meatpacking district, PI Remer was dragged from his van and an unknown Frenchman burned the word voyeur into his chest. Almost six years later, an old friend of Remer's, police detective Kay Barton, asks him to find a missing young woman, Mia Ferrara, for Mia's mother, Evelyn. Earlier, Barton had persuaded Remer, who now runs a liquor store in Southampton, Long Island, to hire Mia for his store, despite her lack of experience. Though Mia subsequently ripped him off for 80 grand, he agrees to meet Evelyn, who turns out to be more concerned with her own safety than her daughter's. Evelyn is sure Mia's disappearance is just the first step in a scheme to kill her. The author's lean but effective prose is a good match for his subject matter. (Oct.)