cover image Fall from Grace: A Noir Thriller

Fall from Grace: A Noir Thriller

Clyde Phillips. William Morrow & Company, $24 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-688-15744-9

An encounter on San Francisco's BART leads to murder in TV veteran Phillips's enthralling debut thriller. Depressed by his impending divorce from Pacific Heights heiress Jenna Maxwell Perry, 39-year-old lawyer David Perry confides in lowlife auto mechanic Barton Hubble, who takes it on himself to make Perry a rich man, even if it means killing Jenna. When Perry refuses to acknowledge the favor, Hubble stalks him and his teenage daughter, Lily. Detective Jane Candiotti, pushing 40, is put on the case. Coming off a fading romance of her own, Candiotti begins an amorous entanglement with Perry that compromises her investigation of Jenna's murder and puts her own life at risk. The debt to Hitchcock is obvious, and, like the master, Phillips makes maximum use of regional details--chief (maybe too chief) among them is the Golden Gate Bridge. Also in the Hitchcock manner, the end comes with a double surprise that provides a powerful resolution to the novel's tense action sequences and gathering suspense. (May)