Murder Bay: A Ben Carey Mystery

A new publisher launches the impressive first in a historical series, which effortlessly alternates between Washington, D.C., in 1862 and the same city 95 years later. In 1957, Ben Carey, an ambitious young beat cop with a troubled marriage, becomes the head of a new planning unit that hopes to obtain funding for innovative police programs. When his wife kicks him out, Carey bunks in the decrepit Victorian mansion that houses his unit, only to find the building apparently haunted by the spirit of Mordechai Finkel, heir to a department store fortune, who died there from wounds sustained in the second battle of Bull Run. After a little digging, Carey comes to suspect that Finkel was murdered and takes a break from his official duties to solve the nearly-century-old cold case. While the supernatural aspect won't be to everyone's tastes, and the author's 1950s are more convincing than his 1860s, this debut shows definite promise. Though Horwitz died in 2004, he left behind several more Ben Carey mysteries in manuscript. (Apr.)