cover image Deep Dive

Deep Dive

Doug Hornig. Mysterious Press, $15.45 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-89296-257-0

Private eye Loren Swift of Charlottesville, Va., a medium-boiled good guy pitted against murder and homophobic bigots, will be familiar to readers of The Dark Side and Hornig's other novels. On a scuba dive in a flooded quarry, Swift and his lover Patricia find the body of a drowned diver, Eric Vessey. Eric's twin sister Morgan hires Swift to investigate: she's had a dream that her twin was murdered. Swift expects little of the investigation but takes the job anyway. Morgan seems to have psychic powers, the case could involve a psychic-research institute in the next county, and Swift, with paranormal tendencies of his own, is intrigued. His interest turns personal when he's attacked in the dead man's house. Swift meets a group of eccentric people in and out of the research institute, nearly loses his own brother in a sniper attack and is almost killed during a solo nighttime dive in the quarry. The case involves a 1940 murder, a bootlegger's gold treasure, nasty family secrets and the eerie world of psychics and spiritualists. Readers may demur here and thereSwift is at least foolhardybut the ending's surprises nicely cap Hornig's smooth plotting. (April)