First Fix Your Alibi

James’s diverting 35th mystery set in an unnamed English seaport (after 2015’s Blaze Away) finds the fragile equilibrium between the drug firms of crooks Ralph Ember and Manse Shale under pressure, while Asst. Chief Constable Desmond Iles and Det. Chief Supt. Colin Harpur seek to prevent the detente from fracturing. The cause of the unrest is the festering wound of the attack that mistakenly killed Shale’s wife and stepson in 2011’s I Am Gold. Shale believes one of his own men, Frank Waverton, was behind the attack and suggests, delicately, that he and Ember adopt the tit-for-tat strategy employed in Strangers on a Train to get rid of Waverton. A swim gala attended by Frank and Rose Waverton results in a comic case of everyone furtively spying on everyone else, but a teen rave at the Binnacle, “the one-time chic coastal hotel and restaurant,” results in a fatal stabbing that keys the finale. James’s constant wordplay keeps the pages turning. Agent: Euan Thorneycroft, A.M. Heath (U.K.). (Apr.)