April 19, 2006

BOOKS: Rhapsody in Blood, John Morgan Wilson (2006)

Seventh in Wilson's mystery series featuring former journalist Benjamin Justice.

This one takes Benjamin not only out of West Hollywood, but out of Los Angeles entirely to the faded resort village of Haunted Springs. Fifty years ago, when it was still called Eternal Springs, it was a popular destination spot for celebrities, and the focus of the nation's attention when the young actress Rebecca Fox was brutally murdered. A black handyman was charged with the crime; when a mob burst into the town jail, he became the victim of the last lynching in California.

Now a film crew has come to Haunted Springs to make a movie based on those events, and Benjamin's friend Alexandra is writing a piece on the movie for the Los Angeles Times. She invites Benjamin to join her, taking the opportunity to get away for a vacation.

But this is a mystery series, and wherever Benjamin goes, death must surely follow. The victim is gossip writer Toni Pebbles, who shows up unexpectedly amid rumors that she has a gigantic bombshell to drop about one of the assembled cast and crew. Everyone's got a secret, it seems, and it falls to Benjamin to figure out whose was worth killing for.

Wilson's series continues to be a solid one, and it's still a novelty to have a series featuring a gay man who's no longer young and pretty (Benjamin is in his late 40's). The assembled cast of suspects is a lively one, each sharply drawn in the limited space allotted; the mystery plays out fairly, and a sharp reader will have a good chance to spot the culprit.

One caveat: Those who are sensitive to children-in-jeopardy plotlines may find some passages too intense.

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