Part thriller, part visionary quest, Kathleen McGowan’s The Expected One plunges the reader into yet another search for the real Mary Magdalene. In the novel, American author Maureen Paschal seeks verifiable facts when researching her book about women maligned by traditional historians. But following the trail of Mary Magdalene soon takes her on a personal journey as well. In Jerusalem, Maureen slips into a compelling vision of a woman who must be Mary. Haunting dreams follow, pointing to clues about Mary and Maureen’s relationship to her. Then, a stranger, the eccentric Berenger Sinclair, invites Maureen to a party at his estate in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, enticing her with a promise of information about her father, who died under mysterious circumstances when Maureen was a child. But she meets resistance from her cousin, Jesuit priest Peter Healy. While Maureen doesn’t share Peter’s love of the Church, he’s her only living relative and protector. Sinclair makes the outrageous claim that Maureen is the prophesied Expected One, a woman of the lineage of Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ, the only one who can find the missing gospels that Mary wrote. Sinclair belongs to a secret society that has traced Mary’s lineage through many famous descendants. But other societies exist in the area, with ruthless members ready to kill to stop Sinclair’s group and destroy the elusive treasure that could redefine Christianity. Interwoven with Maureen’s adventures are glimpses of Mary and snippets of her hidden gospels. As the truth emerges, the narrative moves to Mary herself and offers one more perspective on this enigmatic figure. In an afterword, McGowan thanks Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, whose 1982 book Holy Blood, Holy Grail popularized the idea that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus and that the couple’s descendants are alive today and who attempted to sue Dan Brown for using their claims in The Da Vinci Code. The Expected One is an intriguing take on Mary’s story. Janet Fisher writes from Cottage Grove, Oregon.

Haunted by the darkness that still lived inside him, James Lee Burke’s charismatic Detective Dave Robicheaux of New Iberia, Louisiana, confronts his most challenging case yet in the highly recommended Pegasus Descending. Trish Klein, a shrewd young woman whose last name is entirely too familiar to Robicheaux, has already attracted the attention of federal authorities by passing counterfeit $100 bills. However, Robicheaux soon realizes that Klein’s presence in his town probably means that even bigger trouble will soon be on its way.

Beautiful 18-year-old Yvonne Darbonne has apparently committed suicide, and nobody who knew her has a clue as to why. Then, in a separate cold-case investigation into an obvious hit-and-run homicide, Robicheaux follows an obscure clue that will lead him to question Darbonne’s boyfriend, Tony Lujan, the son of a prominent but notorious Louisiana businessman. When young Lujan is then brutally murdered, Robicheaux discovers clues that link the death to someone associated with Trish Klein’s father.

These incidents lead Robicheaux into a world of moral insanity populated by innocent victims, marginalized people with blood-spattered souls and habitual offenders in league with the forces of darkness. A recovering alcoholic homicide detective with a long history of violence, Robicheaux quickly realizes that he may have never had a more perplexing case. Yet he will ultimately discover that he has never had a case with a more ironic solution. This powerful, paradoxical story of redemption and vengeance is the exemplary work of a writer who is clearly at the top of his game. Enriched by the presence of the resourceful yet flawed Robicheaux probably the most fascinating protagonist in contemporary crime fiction as well as complex characterizations, luminous prose and profound observations of human nature, Burke’s new novel may be his very best.

What if you were the teenage golden boy of a small town, and you saw something you shouldn’t have seen? What if the only way to stay safe is to keep silent, and disappear? What happens when you’re ready to come home again? In The Virgin of Small Plains, award-winning mystery writer Nancy Pickard tells the story of Mitch, Abby and Rex, best friends in idyllic Small Plains, Kansas. When Rex, his brother and their father the local sheriff find the naked body of a young woman in a cow pasture during a blizzard, the teenagers’ lives change in ways they never anticipated. Overnight, Mitch disappears, leaving both his girlfriend and his best buddy feeling abandoned. Over the next decade and a half, life goes on, though with Mitch’s continued absence, neither Abby nor Rex ever feels complete. The townspeople chip in to bury the unidentified girl. Inexplicably, strange miracles occur, and in death, the girl acquires a new identity and a power she lacked in life. Those who ask her help in curing the sick start calling her the Virgin.

After his mother’s death in another snowstorm, Mitch decides that 17 years away is long enough. Determined to get his revenge on the town and the men he feels abandoned him, Mitch settles in to a ranch house his family rarely uses and begins buying property in town. His unexpected encounters with Abby and Rex reopen the wounds all three carry from the night of the Virgin’s death. When Mitch meets another young woman seeking a miracle, his desire for revenge is transformed into a healing force. In an unfolding series of revelations, Abby, Mitch and Rex now sheriff himself discover the truth about the Virgin, and their own families. Pickard handles the shifts between 1987 and the present deftly. She gets inside the hearts and minds of wounded teenagers, and shows how they became strong, capable but still vulnerable adults. The Virgin of Small Plains is a powerful novel that will keep you reading way past bedtime. Leslie Budewitz writes from northwest Montana.

<B>It’s a mystery</B> Noted Greek writer Petros Markaris uses a thoroughly modern and thoroughly corrupt Athens as the backdrop for an international mystery in <B>Deadline in Athens</B>. The novel introduces the overworked and underpaid Athenian homicide inspector Costas Haritos, who wants to do nothing more than quickly close his cases and get his boss and the media off his back. But he can’t abide the unanswered questions in his head. Soon what looks like a simple crime of passion among poverty-stricken Albanian immigrants turns into an international investigation. Well-crafted with a set of memorable characters and satisfying plot twists, <B>Deadline in Athens</B> provides just enough hints to keep you guessing and more than enough suspense to keep you reading. <I>Howard Shirley is a writer in Nashville.</I>