All Saints

In the fourth Murder Ballads and Whiskey novel (after The Revelations of Preston Black), Miller goes south of his characters’ usual Appalachian haunts. Ben Collins and his immortal lover, Danicka, are sailing for Mexico when Dani’s past catches up with them in the form of Hanno Krupp-Toussant, a soldier of fortune whom she last fought during the Balkan War. Dani manages to get them to land safely, but Hanno is fast on their heels. Their flight takes them through small towns on the Yucatàn peninsula, Mayan ruins, and secret roads through the jungle. Even with Hanno to worry about, Dani’s mind is on her quest for redemption, hoping to find it in Mayan cosmology and a ceremony that will bring the rain to drought-parched land. It’s hard to find one’s footing in Miller’s slippery story, particularly for readers unfamiliar with his previous novels. Action sequences and mystical elements are skillfully written, but the long passages of Dani and Ben butting heads is less enthralling; each conflict retreads old ground without moving forward. For a book about cosmological order, this novel feels oddly haphazard. (Feb.)