Graveyard Bay: A Geneva Chase Mystery

At the outset of Kies’s unimpressive third Geneva Chase mystery (after 2018’s Darkness Lane), Chase’s position as an editor at the Sheffield Post, an independent Connecticut newspaper, is in jeopardy as a result of its impending sale to a corporate conglomerate. As soon as the new owner takes over, Chase is demoted to the crime beat under the supervision of her less-than-congenial replacement. Meanwhile, the bodies of a state judge and a private investigator are found in a local marina, chained to the prongs of a forklift. The murders were caught on a security camera, and the leader of the group of men who brought the victims to the marina resembles a vicious Russian thug Chase has encountered before. The authorities, including Chase’s ex-husband, Dep. Chief Mike Dillon, focus on Merlin Finn, a white supremacist the judge sent to prison, from which Finn broke out two weeks earlier. The plot follows predictable pathways, including a scene featuring a captive and near-naked Chase at the mercy of a sex-crazed sadist. Hopefully, Kies will do better next time. Agent: Kimberley Cameron, Kimberley Cameron & Assoc. (Sept.)