Airtight

New Jersey cop Luke Somers, the first-person narrator of Rosenfelt’s new stand-alone, is thoroughly professional on the job, but hapless and a little goofy when it comes to personal matters. As Luke describes his workday, explaining that he’s been placed in charge of the investigation of the murder of a local judge, narrator Jeff Steitzer’s mellifluous voice registers slight sarcasm and cool efficiency. But as the novel progresses—with Luke fatally shooting the main suspect, an addled-but-armed drug addict named Steven Gallagher, and Luke incurring the wrath of Gallagher’s brother Chris, whose military experience has turned him into a one-man killing machine—Steitzer follows the author’s lead and ratchets up the intensity. Along the way, he provides appropriate voices for a relatively small cast of characters, the most notable being Chris Gallagher. It’s a dispassionate but chilling whisper that leaves no doubt that the man means business. A Minotaur hardcover. (Feb.)