High Stakes: A Knight and Devlin Novel

Dobbyn’s pedestrian sixth Knight and Devlin novel (after 2016’s Fatal Odds) takes lawyer Michael Knight from Boston to Romania. When Knight wins a car theft case defending Danny Liu, the young man’s father, the head of the Chinese Merchants’ Association, invites Knight to dinner and offers him an all-expenses-paid vacation at a spa in the Carpathian Mountains. All he has to do in return is bring back a priceless Stradivarius violin, to be found at a violin shop near the resort, for the Boston Symphony concert master. Despite some misgivings, Knight agrees. Once in Romania, he becomes the target of Russian gangs, the Chinese Tong, and dodgy Romanians. What he wasn’t told by the grateful Mr. Liu is that the violin may hold the key to the whereabouts of a fabulous treasure amassed by Vlad the Impaler. Knight’s senior law partner, Lex Devlin, and Boston deputy district attorney Billy Coyne lend a hand. Dobbyn offers no surprises, no wit, and no profound depth of feeling. This is for those who like action-packed escapist fiction, spiced with a dash of Dracula lore. (Oct.)