The Ninth Man

Russ Berard, a former Rhode Island policeman, returns home to Charleston, S.C., under sad circumstances in Crowther's solid first novel-length mystery. Berard's minister father was murdered in his church not long after he learned of the existence of a diary that's rumored to contain the truth behind the loss of the Confederate submarine Hunley, which disappeared after ramming a Union ship blockading Charleston harbor and was salvaged from the ocean floor in 2000. Berard's frustration with the Charleston police brings him into conflict with one old love interest, while another turns out to be married to an eccentric who's planning a Hunley reality TV show. Compensating for the occasional awkward passage ("Man wanting answers always held the high cards in the rain") are gripping extracts from the diary concerning a secret Union mission to sabotage the submersible. Crowther's Politics Makes Dead Bedfellows won the 2010 Black Orchid Novella Award. (Nov.)