HARDSCAPE

Scott's new hero, small-town Connecticut realtor Ben Abbott, is one romantic guy. He did hard time in Leavenworth for insider trading, even though he was technically innocent, just because he'd been greedy; after reluctantly accepting wealthy Jack Long's commission (via his New York investigator Alex Rose) to videotape his stunning painter wife Rita's adulterous sessions with her model—Jack's partner, Ron Pearlman—he falls for the couple, tosses the video away, and almost gets caught for his trouble; and when he finds Ron dead on the Longs' palatial grounds the next day, he's convinced by the tender way Rita handles the corpse that she can't be guilty. He doesn't want to investigate further, though, because—here's the kicker—he's busy trying to clear the name of his self-made cousin Renny Chevalley, apparently shot over a drug deal. Wouldn't it be nice, though, if the two murders were somehow connected? Smartly observed and solidly plotted, with subplots that linger just long enough to bring out Ben's charm. Veteran suspenser Scott (The Nine Dragons, 1991, etc.) may have struck gold with this new series.