Chasing Darkness

After earning a law degree, James Daniels quit recording audiobooks, but returned to read Crais’s newest Elivis Cole and Joe Pike mystery (his previous Crais recordings include The Forgotten Man , Hostage , The Last Detective , Lullaby Town and The Watchman ). It’s a welcome return and Daniel’s no-nonsense reading elevates one of Crais’s lesser efforts and turns it into an enjoyable listening experience. Slipping back into these characters, Daniels easily distinguishes Cole’s wise-guy banter from Pike’s steely resolution, and he gives this outing’s enigmatic villain, Lionel Byrd, just the right note of weirdness. A fire unearths evidence that someone Cole helped prove innocent of murdering a prostitute six years ago may actually have been guilty—and may have killed many other women. Cole and Pike dodge bullets as they dig around to find out the truth. A Simon & Schuster hardcover (Reviews, May 19). (July)