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Latest Brodie Farrell Mystery Isn't Flawed

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By AL HUTCHISON

Published: November 4, 2007

"Flawed (a Brodie Farrell Mystery)," by Jo Bannister (St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95)

When lovers of British mysteries talk about their favorite authors, they usually mention P.D. James, Ruth Rendell, Reginald Hill, Ian Rankin and others who have enjoyed not only critical acclaim but also commercial success. Jo Bannister is bidding for similar recognition.

Her Brodie Farrell series, set in a small city on the English Channel, consistently entertains while offering insights into the human condition. Farrell runs a small business that finds things - obscure books, for example - for her customers, but frequently she finds herself helping to solve a genuine murder mystery instead.

In "Flawed," Farrell's life is complicated by the fact she's pregnant with her former lover's child, but that's almost beside the point, even if the father is the top detective in town. More dramatic is her friend Daniel Hood's determination to save a 12-year-old boy he once taught in the local school from physical abuse at the hands of his father. Or might it be his mother, a woman with an impeccable reputation in the community? The fact that the father is the hot-tempered lawyer for a big-time hood puts Daniel, among others, at risk.

Bannister's principal characters have good intentions but are saddled with personal weaknesses. They are tarnished saints, and Bannister has the knack of making them believable. Also, with impressive intelligence, she illuminates the thought processes that drive them to take risks most of us would carefully avoid.

Al Hutchison is a freelance writer who lives in Inverness.

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