Friends and Enemies

Mellingham’s police chief Joe Silva, the likable protagonist of this polished series (The New York Times Book Review), has his hands full when the Mellingham High School Class of 1969 holds their twenty-fifth reunion. Not every member of the class is looking forward to the gathering. Eliot Keogh is returning to his hometown to find the person responsible for sending his father to prison on a false charge. Becka Chase, on the reunion committee, is distracted because the husband of her best friend, Mindy, Vic Rabelard, is trying to revive their long-dead affair. She fears her husband will find out and leave her. The reunion has barely begun when Mindy Rabelard disappears and Vic is found near death, apparently the victim of some strange toxin. Joe Silva will have to travel back twenty-five years and fit together a series of interlocking events and crimes to figure out what’s going on in Mellingham. Kirkus Reviews calls it a red-herring heydey for whodunit fans.