Nine hundred years ago Hasan-I-Sabah founded the Assassins, the most effective killing machine in the world. Their cult of political murder created a terrorist environment throughout the Middle East.

In this realistic novel by Gerald Seymour, their progeny continue that tradition. Now the murder motive is vengeance.

Frank Perry is living a quiet, hidden life on the shore of Suffolk. A decade ago Perry was known by a different name and was caught by the British government selling machinery to Iran that would enable the Iranians to create chemical and biological weapons. Perry decided to help the British spy agency and became an information courier. At the end of the project he is given a new name and a new life. Now the Anvil is the assassin assigned by the Islamic movement to terminate Frank Perry.

When an FBI agent in Saudi Arabia learns of the mission and warns British authorities, they attempt to rescue Frank Perry by offering him yet another relocation. Perry refuses. He is tired of running and determined to stay. The tension builds as the assassin travels by ship from Iran to England and makes his way to Suffolk.

This is High Noon with Frank Perry in the Gary Cooper role. Seymour’s elegant and nuanced details of espionage activities lend realism as the novel moves toward its stunning climax.

Larry Woods is an attorney in Nashville.

Pilot Airie may be losing his mind. Twenty years ago, Pilot’s sister, Fiona, disappeared without a trace. Nothing has been the same since. The disappearance caused his family to unravel; his father left, his brother grew distant, and his mother now sees ghosts. Pilot has now taken it upon himself to pull it all together again, assuming that he doesn’t unravel first.

Raveling is a genuinely gripping and eloquent debut novel by Peter Moore Smith. This novel has the basic structure of a mystery an unsolved disappearance, puzzled and puzzling characters, suspicions on all sides but it is more a psychological exploration than a straight mystery. Smith doesn’t focus on the details of the disappearance. This is not a book with detailed passages on forensics or lab reports. His focus is on the characters and their interactions.

The story begins as Pilot returns home from California, where his brother found him living on a beach. Because his mother’s vision is failing, Pilot has agreed to live at home to help her. All is going well until he begins to hear voices: the electricity in light bulbs talks to him, the woods behind the house beckon to him.

Eventually Pilot is hospitalized. There, his counselor Katherine takes an interest in his case. As she probes deeper into his past, trying to find a trigger for his psychotic episode, she becomes fascinated with the stories of his lost sister. What could have caused her disappearance? Who could have taken her without leaving a single trace? As she digs deeper into Pilot’s memories, things really start to get interesting.

Raveling is an unusual mystery. It starts slowly, as if the reader has stepped into a story already in progress. But the deeper into the book readers get, the deeper the mystery becomes, and the greater the urge to read on. Unlike many mysteries, in which the unfolding of the story provides a greater understanding, Raveling offers little in the way of clues. This is primarily due to the fact that the protagonist, Pilot, may not be entirely sane.

Yet Pilot’s struggle with his sanity is one of the most intriguing and appealing aspects of the book. The entire story is told from his point of view, that of a medicated schizophrenic. If he himself cannot be certain of the facts, cannot be sure of his own perceptions, how can the reader? There are times when the reader must ponder the question, Is this a clue or a delusion? This uncertainty adds immensely to the pleasure of reading this book. Smith’s descriptions of Pilot’s deluded worldview are beautifully written and captivating, providing insight into his state of mind.

If you enjoy a literary mystery, or enjoy discovering a talented new writer, Raveling is the book for you.

Wes Breazeale is a writer in the Pacific Northwest.

Pilot Airie may be losing his mind. Twenty years ago, Pilot’s sister, Fiona, disappeared without a trace. Nothing has been the same since. The disappearance caused his family to unravel; his father left, his brother grew distant, and his mother now sees ghosts. Pilot has now taken it upon himself to pull it all together again, assuming that he doesn’t unravel first.

Raveling is a genuinely gripping and eloquent debut novel by Peter Moore Smith. This novel has the basic structure of a mystery an unsolved disappearance, puzzled and puzzling characters, suspicions on all sides but it is more a psychological exploration than a straight mystery. Smith doesn’t focus on the details of the disappearance. This is not a book with detailed passages on forensics or lab reports. His focus is on the characters and their interactions.

The story begins as Pilot returns home from California, where his brother found him living on a beach. Because his mother’s vision is failing, Pilot has agreed to live at home to help her. All is going well until he begins to hear voices: the electricity in light bulbs talks to him, the woods behind the house beckon to him.

Eventually Pilot is hospitalized. There, his counselor Katherine takes an interest in his case. As she probes deeper into his past, trying to find a trigger for his psychotic episode, she becomes fascinated with the stories of his lost sister. What could have caused her disappearance? Who could have taken her without leaving a single trace? As she digs deeper into Pilot’s memories, things really start to get interesting.

Raveling is an unusual mystery. It starts slowly, as if the reader has stepped into a story already in progress. But the deeper into the book readers get, the deeper the mystery becomes, and the greater the urge to read on. Unlike many mysteries, in which the unfolding of the story provides a greater understanding, Raveling offers little in the way of clues. This is primarily due to the fact that the protagonist, Pilot, may not be entirely sane.

Yet Pilot’s struggle with his sanity is one of the most intriguing and appealing aspects of the book. The entire story is told from his point of view, that of a medicated schizophrenic. If he himself cannot be certain of the facts, cannot be sure of his own perceptions, how can the reader? There are times when the reader must ponder the question, Is this a clue or a delusion? This uncertainty adds immensely to the pleasure of reading this book. Smith’s descriptions of Pilot’s deluded worldview are beautifully written and captivating, providing insight into his state of mind.

If you enjoy a literary mystery, or enjoy discovering a talented new writer, Raveling is the book for you.

Wes Breazeale is a writer in the Pacific Northwest.

In Don Winslow’s second mystery, California Fire and Life, police officer Jack Wade takes the stand to testify at the trial of a man accused of arson and murder. But dramatic surprise testimony by his nemesis a fellow cop reveals that Wade has perjured himself and in fact beat a confession out of the accused.

This gripping scene would play out at the climax of many a murder mystery, but instead serves as the backstory of Winslow’s novel with a twist. Wade, now an insurance investigator after being drummed out of the force for his perjury, is the hero of the book. He wrung the confession from the obviously guilty mob-connected arsonist to protect an eyewitness. Wade’s post-trial career as an insurance adjuster has him scratching the ashes of fires that consume property, memories, and sometimes lives. The remnants left by years of fires, coupled with the embers of his disgrace, have burned out most of Wade’s idealism, leaving smoldering disillusion quenched only by early-morning sessions with his vintage surfboard. One morning he finds himself at the charred ruins of a posh coastal mansion in which a beautiful woman lies dead. Wade believes from the start that the owner, wealthy Nicky Vale, set the fire that claimed the life of his estranged wife. However, Wade’s nemesis from his trial declares the fire accidental.

Wade’s instincts, and the encouragement of his boss (whose motto is " We don’t pay people to burn their homes down"), compel him to try to assemble evidence of Vale’s guilt, incidentally saving his company the hefty insurance claim. The path of Wade’s investigation takes him to a chief suspect who hides a tangle of deception even from those who believe they know his secrets. The reader soon learns whether Vale set the fire, but further surprises are yet in store. A veteran arson investigator himself, Winslow lets his 15 years of experience speak through Wade, from the detective’s joyful discovery of his vocation at fire school, to his years of bitterness as he inspects fires deliberately set. The insatiable hunger of fire as well as that of criminals, developers, insurance executives, lawyers, cops, old flames, and other vivid supporting characters is matched by the reader’s hunger to consume the story of California Fire and Life.

Gregory Harris is a writer and editor living in Indianapolis.