cover image Fisherman's Bend

Fisherman's Bend

Linda Greenlaw. Brilliance Corporation, $29.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-4233-6177-0

Sandra Burr offers a cool, understated reading of Greenlaw's second nautical mystery (following 2007's Slipknot), which finds 42-year-old marine insurance investigator and deputy sheriff Jane Bunker investigating some vandalism aboard a research vessel that leads to a missing person case, a fatal drug overdose and an attempted murder. Burr's dialects are sure: whether she's playing a Maine fisherman or a Native American oysterman, she sounds like the real thing. Burr also creates a sympathetic portrait of the very vulnerable Bunker, holding listeners' attention during Greenlaw's slow buildup. A Hyperion hardcover (Reviews, May 5).