cover image Yellow Bird

Yellow Bird

Rick Boyer. Ballantine Books, $17 (323pp) ISBN 978-0-449-90506-7

In his Doc Adams stories, Edgar-winner Boyer ( Billingsgate Shoal ) calls on cozily familiar characters, strong local color and good guys who are indisputably on the right side; at the same time he occasionally slips into smugness and boosterism. This time Doc and his wife Mary are invited to a late autumn Cape Cod party given by an old med-school chum who has made it big in Texas. During a stroll on the beach, the Adamses think they hear a shot from a deserted mansion, but the house seems empty when they investigate. A few weeks later, a body, shot, is found in the house, which belongs to mega-rich Northrop Chesterton; the victim turns out to be a former neighbor of Doc's on the mainland. A long, complicated tale involving more murder, drug dealing, gay and interracial sex and secret identities unfolds to a fairly satisfactory end. While drawbacks include Doc's dumb amateur-dick stunts, putting him in peril, and a silly soap opera-ish situation with a pretty girl, Boyer brings this adventure to a fairly satisfactory end. (Nov.)