Chain Reaction

January 13, 2014
Fanning’s seventh Lucinda Pierce mystery (after 2013’s Wrong Turn) finds the Virginia homicide investigator as touchy and driven as ever. When a bomb explodes at Woodrow Wilson High School, killing a janitor and a student, competing agencies investigate—the FBI, in the person of Pierce’s boyfriend, Jake Lovett, plus ATF and Homeland Security. Pierce doubts the bombing is terrorism related, but hers is not a popular opinion. Pierce is a strong lead, often likable and always interesting, but the racial attitudes of other characters may make some readers uncomfortable: one of the feds is so hysterical on the subject of Muslim terrorists that he has a nervous breakdown; Pierce’s black sergeant wants (white) backup before talking to a certain source; and a mixed-race teenager introduces his dark-skinned mother as the maid. This may be just a reflection of life in the New South, but it feels like a lot of heavy-duty stuff grafted onto the story. Agent: Jane Dystel, Dystel & Goderich.

January 15, 2014
A bomb blast shatters the tranquility of a Sunday morning. When the bomb explodes, killing a caretaker and an unidentified person, Lt. Lucinda Pierce rushes to the local high school. Although Lucinda lives with FBI agent Jake Lovett, she's not happy to think that the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and Homeland Security will take over her case, especially once she meets ATF Agent Connelly, who is quick to disparage the local police, is extremely rude to everyone and is fixated on Muslim terrorists. Lucinda refuses to be pushed out, especially when the body is identified as that of a high school student whose friend is soon found dead by suicide. She focuses her attention on the red pickup truck that was seen leaving the scene. Several students drive red pickups. So do three teachers. Lucinda investigates them all while Connelly continues to alienate both local law enforcement and Jake, who finds him impossible to work with. Lucinda is also trying to help young Charley Spencer (Wrong Turn, 2013, etc.), whose friend Amber, molested by her mother's boyfriend, finds that her mother refuses to believe her. When the powers that be realize that Connelly, who's kidnapped some innocent Sikhs, is suffering from dementia, they take him off the case. But the pressures of the bombing and her fears for Amber still prey on Lucinda, who must put all the evidence together if she's to uncover a sly killer. Lucinda isn't the only one who'll find herself distracted by all the subplots. But the tale moves along at a brisk pace, and Fanning provides several welcome twists even though she hints at the guilty party early on.

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2014
A bomb blast rocks a high school on a Sunday afternoon, killing a janitor and an unidentified student. Homicide detective Lucinda Pierce arrives at the scene to find herself removed from the case. The FBI and Homeland Security, convinced that the bomb is the work of a terrorist group, do not think the locals can handle it. Lucinda is annoyed and convinced that there are other motives. She surreptitiously continues the investigation with the support of her chief and her domestic partner, FBI Agent Jake Lovett. When another high-school student turns up dead, a possible suicide, Lucinda is sure that the two cases are related and have nothing to do with terrorism. Meanwhile, she is also dealing with a young girl who has been abused by her mother's boyfriend. The two cases and the subplot involving feuding federal agencies combine to provide a timely and involving case.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)