Issue #0

The Art of Deception

Plot

Seattle police psychologist Daphne Mathews has her hands full with apregnant, addicted, runaway teenager, a murder victim's brother whose strangebehavior unnerves her, and a deputy sheriff she once treated who's now stalkingher. She's frightened enough to move in with Detective John LaMoia, adevelopment that doesn't exactly thrill Lou Boldt, their boss and Daphne'sex-lover. But Lou's too busy with his own cases to brood over John and Daphne:the recent disappearances of two local women, and the death of Billy Chen, thenephew of Mama Lu, an old friend and a powerful figure in Seattle's Chinesecommunity, which appeared to be an accident but turns out to have been murder.The only thing the disappearances and murder have in common is location; allthree victims were last seen in a part of downtown built over the Underground, adark and dangerous warren of buildings abandoned after the fire that leveledSeattle more than a hundred years ago. While Seattle's Underground has been thesetting for several mysteries by other authors (Earl Emerson, J.A. Jance),Pearson makes the most of its creepy-crawly atmosphere in a gripping thrillerwhose solid plotting pulls all of Daphne's, LaMoia's, and Boldt's casestogether. It also wisely reconfigures the personal relationships among the threecentral characters, which bodes well for their future adventures in thislong-running series (Middle ofNowhere, The PiedPiper). --Jane Adams