Acclaimed British noir author Waites (The Mercy Seat
) is somewhat less than accomplished in his debut novel, first published in the U.K. in 1997, a grim look at the Newcastle underworld. Stephen Larkin, a London journalist, is still traumatized by the deaths of his wife and young son at the hands of a man who felt himself wronged by one of Larkin's articles. His current job, for a tabloid, pays the bills, but his life remains empty until an assignment takes him to his hometown of Newcastle to write on a gangland killing. On his arrival, he runs into an old flame, Charlotte Birch, who asks for his help proving that a friend of hers was not a suicide. After the predictable violence and betrayals that follow, Larkin bounces back from the additional pain he suffers rather too quickly. (Nov.)
