cover image The Socorro Blast

The Socorro Blast

Pari Noskin Taichert. University of New Mexico Press, $24.95 (310pp) ISBN 978-0-8263-4384-0

In Taichert's middling third cosy to feature New Mexican public relations consultant and sometime sleuth Sasha Solomon (after 2005's The Belen Hitch), Sasha is gearing up for a major presentation on tourism when she gets word that her favorite niece, Gabi Shofet, has been seriously injured in an explosion. Sasha rushes to Gabi's hospital bed, where she learns that someone had planted a bomb in Gabi's mailbox. The police suspect the attack might be connected with Gabi's graduate research into explosives, but Sasha doubts the authorities are on the right track. To complicate matters, Gabi has been having an affair with her married faculty adviser. Suspense and character development are in short supply, while the self-absorbed Sasha displays little in the way of detective acumen.