SMOKE AND MIRRORS

Four years and three volumes after her husband’s murder, librarian Greer Hogan finally gets a crack at laying it to rest.

Members of the NYPD are satisfied that New Leaf financial officer Daniel Sullivan was fatally beaten during a botched robbery by boxer/deliveryman Pete Perry, who was convicted long ago even though he insisted that he left Dan unconscious but alive. When attorney April Benson, deprived of the opportunity to finalize her divorce from New Leaf corporate counsel Frank Benson by his sudden death, tells Greer that she suspects murder and provides Greer with some arcane printouts that neither of them can make sense of, Greer instantly decides that the same motive and the same culprit were responsible for both deaths. Moving back temporarily to New York from her refuge in upstate Raven Hill, Greer uses her finely honed professional skills to search for anyone connected to New Leaf, a CBD company branching out into cannabis, who might have wanted both men dead. Though she gets precious little intelligence from CEO Clarice Philips and COO William Warren, her old neighbors provide unobtrusive details that bolster her case. In more substantial roles, so do Joseph Grimaldi, a magician who jumps in with both feet, and Carolyn Quinn, the great-aunt of Dan’s former assistant, math whiz Isabelle Peterson. Despite another break-in and two new fatalities, the prevailing tone is so blandly civilized that Greer confesses, “If I hadn’t been investigating my husband’s murder, I’d have been enjoying myself.”

Though the mystery could’ve used more surprises, it’s nice to see the heroine get the closure readers will have seen coming.