PROBABLE CAUSE

by Ridley Pearson ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 9, 1990

Pearson's most recent thriller, Undercurrents (1988), stands as one of the most gripping of modern police procedurals. Not so his latest, which--though also featuring plot turns and forensic detail aplenty--suffers from a lackluster hero and villain, and erratic pacing. James Dewitt is the appealing but uncharismatic cop of Carmel, California, who must solve two identical deaths, the bodies found sealed in cars with an exhaust running. Other cops and the mayor say suicide, but forensic expert Dewitt suspects murder. Who's the killer? Most signs point to Howard Lumbrowski--the cop whose incompetence five months back led to a now-dead prisoner killing Dewitt's wife and sending his younger daughter into a coma--until Lumbrowski is found dead by the same m.o. As Dewitt navigates a choppy personal life--coping with his rebellious other daughter, fending off a sluttish public defender, starting an affair with his new assistant--fresh clues filter in: most notably, that the killings mirror the work of a jailed homicidal maniac, Harvey Collette. Dewitt's chilling visits to the genuinely scary Collette lead to the identity of the killer, a psychotic who, like Collette, ""traps"" his victims, and who committed his first two killings as cover-up for his real aim: to slay Lumbrowski and Dewitt for their roles in the death of his son--the very prisoner who killed Dewitt's wife. The psycho, ""Trapper John,"" pulls the plug on Dewitt's comatose daughter and, before he's caught, nearly kills Dewitt when the cop finds his lair, a motel-room-cum-gas-chamber. A subsequent court hearing--presented partly in transcript--pits Dewitt nastily against the public defender he spurned; and although the psycho is not freed, he escapes to stalk Dewitt's surviving daughter in a brisk, twisty finale. Satisfying overall, and fascinating for its forensic minutiae; but the soft characterizations and ragged meshing of social, criminal, and courtroom intrigue drain suspense. Here's a novel (film rights already sold) in which a minor character--that scary Collette--steals the show: no wonder, then, that the last page sets up a sequel pitting Dewitt against that intriguing madman.

Pub Date: March 9, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1990

Categories: FICTION