The Disappearance

After forays into the coming-of-age (The Obstacle Course) and PI (House of Smoke) genres, Freedman seems to have settled back, with last year's Key Witness and this new novel, into the sort of rambunctious legal thriller that made his reputation with his debut, Against the Wind. That book has been his high water mark, critically and commercially, and his new novel is unlikely to match it, despite a powerful premise, exciting plotting both in and out of the courtroom and Freedman's usual muscular prose. The opening here is immensely gripping: a teenage girl is apparently kidnapped from her Santa Barbara, Calif., bedroom during a slumber party, her wealthy family deals with the devastation of her disappearance, her body is found and, a year later, a hotshot TV newscaster is arrested for the killing. Freedman handles this sensitive material--obviously inspired by the real-life kidnap-slaying of Polly Klass--freshly and with appropriate gravity. He takes a turn toward the routine, however, when he introduces his hero, attorney Luke Garrison, whose very contrariness--he's a former DA who has fled to the woods in shame over a past failure, who rides a hog and sports a goatee and a ruby stud in his ear--makes him just one more dashing antihero. Luke agrees to defend the newscaster, plunging himself and his hot-blooded girlfriend/assistant into an adrenalized investigation and trial full of false leads, twists and brushes with death, all of which Freedman handles skillfully, other than pointing a blatant finger at the dead girl's father as the real culprit. So the ultimate unmasking of the killer comes as no big surprise, although Freedman's lurid handling of it is surprising--and, some might say, exploitative, as this talented writer turns what begins as a worthy re-imagining of a brutal tragedy into a histrionic page-burner. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club and Mystery Guild selections. (Oct.)