NOT WHAT IT SEEMS

A quiet Georgia neighborhood is disrupted by the depredations of the Savannah Slasher.

Not that there aren’t already tidal conflicts eddying around the place. When Billy Huber falls off a ladder and dies, nobody really mourns: Ever since he walked away from the one-car accident that killed his wife, Linda-Sue, eight years ago, the only people he’s been at all close to are the ones he’s fighting with. Even so, most of these conflicts are so minor that the news Billy was murdered turns up very few credible suspects for homicide detective Pierce Reed and his much more active wife, bestselling true-crime writer Nikki Gillette, to investigate. Forbidden by her husband from entering the crime scene or accessing any confidential information, Nikki happens to be on hand for a key revelation: A polished stone engraved with Hebrew and Arabic numbers was discovered under Billy’s body. That bit of information becomes way more valuable with the discovery of a similar stone under the corpse of society maven Mavis Greenlee. The two have clearly been killed by the same person, but what on earth could be the motive for targeting citizens from both the very top and the very bottom of the neighborhood’s social hierarchy? Nikki, still mourning the loss of Pierce’s late partner, Sylvie Morrisette, who died trying to save Nikki from drowning, can only hope that a third murder will clear the air. And as it turns out, the Slasher isn’t done. Whodunit fans can relax: The culprit is such a minor character that there’s no point in trying to deduce, or even guess, who it is.

A procedural? A closed-circle mystery? A reckoning with the past? Whatever it is, this is not what it seems.