The Girl in the Green Raincoat, by Laura Lippman. William Morrow, 2008.

Tess Monaghan, private investigator, is confined to bed during the last months of her pregnancy. Bored, she spends her days watching the people in the park outside her window. Every day, a young woman in a green raincoat walks her Italian greyhound, and talks on her cell phone. One day, the dog appears, running through the park with leash flying, sans owner. Tess, convinced something terrible has happened to her, determines to get to the bottom of the mystery and discovers layers of crimes and cover-ups which lead to a startling - and dangerous - discovery.

I just returned from the American Library Association's annual conference, held this year in New Orleans. The Public Library Association President's program featured the husband-wife team of David Simon and Laura Lippman, who discussed their works and philosophy of writing, and also shared anecdotes from their days as journalists. I bought one book from each author, and read this novella, the 11th in the Tess Monaghan series, on the plane coming home. I found it to be light, tight, and twisted, and have already placed the first book in the series on hold.

Virtually Dead by Peter May. Poisoned Pen, 2010

Taking place both in Second Life (SL) and Real Life (RL), a series of brutal murders of real people and their SL avatars creates a mystery on several levels.

Michael Kapinsky has been grieving the death of his wife for too long, and has recently returned to work as a forensic crime photographer. His therapist invites him to participate in group therapy sessions in Second Life. He joins and creates his avatar, Chas Chesnokov, a Brad Pitt look-alike. Although the learning curve is steep, he makes some SL friends and immediately and involuntarily becomes involved with the Twist of Fate Detective Agency. A series of bizarre murders puzzles everyone: an SL avatar is killed by three shots to the chest, and the RL "owner" of the avatar is killed at the same time, in the same way - all people Michael knows. Who can it be? And how did all traces of the "dead" avatars' existence on the Linden Lab servers get removed, and their SL money get deposited to other accounts?

The writing is unremarkable and the plot is predictable; however the venue is novel.

"Hot Wired in Brooklyn" by Douglas DiNunzio. iPublish.com, 2001.

It's interesting that more librarians are not authors, working day in and day out with books - all kinds - as they do.

The story is actually the second in a series, though the first has not yet been published. Eddie Lombardi, private investigator is persuaded to prove the innocence of a kid who, up to now, has been nothing but trouble. Along the way, we meet Eddie's "goombahs", Charlotte, a sinister and troubled - but beautiful - young woman, and other colorful characters.

This title was written by a now-retired librarian, who worked at Sacramento Public Library. My book club read it this month, and then, instead of a book discussion, we invited the author to our meeting and learned all about what it takes to develop characters, a plot, and a market. He described the research done for the books, his own method of picking up the narrative after a break, and how he is compelled to remain consistent with what the characters would or whould not do if they were real people. Knowing this "back story" gave me a new take on the book, its plot, and especially its characters.

"The Suspect" by John T. Lescroart. New York, Dutton 2007.

The entire story takes place between the time Stuart leaves Lake Tahoe and returns to his home in the Bay Area, only to discover his wife has drowned in their hot tub, and the grand jury hearing at which he is accused of her murder. With exquisite detail, Lescroart draws a bead on first one character then another, as the attorneys battle it out before the judge.

I was not totally enamoured of his writing; however, this is the "One Book" title that will be discussed in October as part of the Sacramento Public Library's sesquicentennial celebration this year. Because I fell in love after the fact with a previous One Book title, "Epitaph for a Peach," and regretted missing the author talks, I thought I'd get a head start on this year's book.