DEATH DUTIES

Verity Mackeller reopens some ugly wounds when her old Port Silva soccer coach, Andy Larson, dies and leaves his daughter Verity’s old soccer teammate, Chris, with a last request: clear his father’s name.

The old man, Edgar Larson, was accused of child-molesting 28 years ago. Though charges were never brought, he committed suicide a few months later. The police investigated the anonymous phone calls accusing him but didn’t take them seriously. Interviewing a reclusive mountain man and former cop and a few of the Larsons’ neighbors, Verity gathers contrasting views of the proud, successful, but quiet Edgar Larson. Then someone burns down the unoccupied Larson house. Is it the homeless man who squatted in the backyard? Or is someone warning Verity off? Elements of Port Silva society are definitely unhappy to have the old case dug up. Verity gets fired from her part-time cook’s job because the restaurant owner’s mother-in-law is convinced of Larson’s guilt. Meantime, Verity also begins to look for a beautiful but wild high-school girl who disappeared about the same time that the civic-minded alleged pervert was volunteering at the high school.

Lush prose, hard-edged, complex characters, and a good measure of wry humor: another rich entry in the Port Silva series (Keepers, 2001, etc.).