cover image Storm Front

Storm Front

Virginia Andersen, V. S. Anderson. Doubleday Books, $16.5 (436pp) ISBN 978-0-385-42232-1

A convoluted plot, a lack of focus and a barrelful of red herrings drain most of the suspense from this lengthy mystery. Joe Hope, weary and cynical, is a special agent for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He's been assigned to a Tampa-based task force to track a serial killer who has abducted 14 young women from area rest stops, murdered them and buried their bodies in sinkholes. When a female wildlife officer is viciously slain, Joe has a hunch that her death is related to the sinkhole killings and, without authorization, leaves the task force to pursue leads on his own. Anderson ( King of the Roses ) creates a pungent South Florida landscape, drawing the increasingly bewildered Joe through fetid, insect-ridden swamps; littered trailer homes; and delapidated motels. The strong setting, however, doesn't compensate for poorly conceived secondary characters and an overwrought denouement. (Feb.)