Ridley Pearson
Police Lt. Daphne Matthews, who thinks interrogating suspects is a thrilling game, finds that the key to a murder investigation lies in Seattle's forgotten and rotting "Underground," an eerie city-under-the-city that was abandoned due to flooding in the late 1800s. Pearson—who anonymously wrote The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer, a bestseller centered around a character from the Stephen King miniseries Rose Red—nails the setting as well as the vivid cast of swaggering cops whose psychological scars sometimes lead them off the trail. Creepy atmospherics, though, don't quite make up for a mundane plot that meanders through a predictable series of murders, stalkings and cover-ups. (Hyperion, $23.95)
Bottom Line: Art but no pop
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