Erasing Memory

Thornley’s impressive debut opens when a young violinist is found murdered and left in an artful death pose dressed in her best evening gown. Clearly a macabre message is being sent, or so Det. Supt. MacNiece believes. The only lead: a murder weapon used exclusively by former Eastern Bloc hit teams. The plot thickens when MacNiece discovers the victim’s father was once a highly placed microbiologist in communist Romania’s Ceaușescu regime. While the book starts out as a by-the-numbers crime procedural, it quickly becomes a stand-out character driven mystery. MacNiece, a brilliant detective whom the whole department admires, is still tortured over the death of his wife, and his inner demons distract him to the point that he makes errors on the job, resulting in the gruesome murder of an important witness he was protecting. MacNiece’s humanness, and his squad’s continued admiration of him despite his fallibilities, fuel this terrific novel as much as the tight plot does. Superb writing, complex and highly likable characters, and the occasional delicious burst of violence definitely make the next books in this series worth watching for. Agent: Bruce Westwood, Westwood Creative Artists. (June)