Chasm

In Miller’s engaging though busy fifth Frankie Macfarlane mystery (after 2011’s Fracture), the Tucson, Ariz., geologist agrees to fill in as an instructor on a raft trip through the Grand Canyon with a group of college students. Hiding among the students is Naomi Sprague, a young woman who is fleeing “the Family,” a polygamous cult based in Arizona, and a forced marriage to brutal Ben Gruber. Her father and Ben are on her trail. On the second day of the trip, a stranger confronts Frankie with rifle and knife, forcing her to dive into the dangerous river to escape. The stranger later stalks her. The tension rises further when aging hippie Charles Rennie sets his sights on destroying two suspension bridges across the Colorado River. Miller keeps the story moving at a brisk pace as the several plot lines smoothly converge, amid the region’s natural wonders carved by time. (Mar.)