Dark River Rising

Baton Rouge, La., homicide detective Wallace Hartman, the heroine of Johns’s uneven debut, is shocked to come across the body of a man with a live snake sewn into his stomach. The discovery of a decent haul of cocaine nearby points to a possible drug hit, and the snake is reminiscent of a certain cartel boss’s calling card, but on U.S. soil? Mason Cunningham, the deputy assistant administrator for intelligence at the DEA, is on his way to Baton Rouge when a match is made on the National Drug Pointer Index between the murder and cartel heavy Fernando Echeverria. Luckily, Wallace and Mason make a pretty good team, but when chemist Matt Gable goes missing, the case takes a strange turn—the killer may be someone very close to home. Wallace and Mason fit the usual molds: she’s funny and tough yet vulnerable, and Mason is smart and handsome, immediately drawing her interest. On top of a familiar plot and two-dimensional supporting characters, an abrupt ending doesn’t help. Agent: Paula Munier, Talcott Notch Literary Agency. (Aug.)