Lowertown: A Herman Jackson Mystery

In Thompson’s suspenseful third mystery featuring St Paul, Minn., bail bondsman Herman Jackson (after 2009’s Frag Box), public defender Trish Hanover goes missing after her latest client, Ray Valento, a recidivist sex offender and suspected serial killer, makes bail when someone posts a phony bond in Jackson’s name. While the police appear strangely uninterested, the bondsman is left to pursue leads on his own in the bitter cold of winter. Enlisting the help of old friend “Wide Track” Wilkie, new love Naomi Ford, and an eccentric savant known as the Prophet, Jackson tracks the fugitive into the heart of the gritty, industrial part of the city known as Lowertown. It soon becomes clear that Valento isn’t acting alone, and that the killers will do anything to keep Jackson from discovering the truth. Crisp prose and characters with soul complement a plot that occasionally demands a suspension of disbelief but keeps the reader engaged until the end. (Dec.)