Booking In

In Bratten’s entertaining seventh series entry (following Keeper of the Flame), Crang, a too-curious-for-his-own-good criminal lawyer and investigator, takes on a literary mystery. Toronto bookstore owner Fletcher Marshall hires Crang to locate stolen literary letters and a suspected forgery of the manuscript of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese, both of which were taken from a safe in Marshall’s bookstore. It’s a convoluted tale involving the children of the wealthy entrepreneur poised to buy the Browning manuscript, the daughter of the author of the stolen letters, and bookstore staff. Readers also get to know some of Crang’s associates, including the retired safe-cracker Freddie Biscuit. There is the serious and unfortunate matter of a murder along the way, but Batten gives the book the light tone of a caper, with Crang and his girlfriend and sidekick, Annie, playing it for laughs—until Crang faces a gunman in his backyard. Too many convenient connections between characters strain the plot’s credibility, and it doesn’t take a mastermind to identify the guilty parties, but Crang’s wit and brass pull the story off and make it fun for readers. (Dec.)