> WHODUNIT

JACK BATTEN

The Quaker By Liam McIlvanney Spiderline, 400 pages, $19.95 It’s Glasgow in the winter of 1969. Someone’s killing young women with horrific flourishes. The police unit in charge of the case seems flummoxed, and an inspector from another unit, Duncan McCormack, is assigned to critique the first unit’s inept sleuthing techniques. McCormack is also Catholic in Protestant Glasgow and a secret homosexual in an occupation where homosexuality will get you instantly bounced off the job. This is only the beginning of the story in a novel that’s intricately plotted, resourceful in its characterization and gorgeously written. ANoise Downstairs By Linwood Barclay Doubleday, 368 pages, $25.95 The noise of the title goes chit chit chit. It comes from tapping on an antique typewriter, carrying messages in the night to Paul Davis, who is recovering from a blow on the head delivered by the infamous “Apology Killer,” who he caught in the act of burying the bodies of two women he’d murdered. Davis thinks the messages might originate with the spirits of the murdered women. Linwood Barclay has written18 crime novels, none so infernally creepy as his latest book. The plot frequently tips toward the otherworldly, but never falls irretrievably in that direction. There really is a character committing a conventional crime. It’s the path to the final answers that proves to be so complex. Believe Me By JP Delaney Doubleday Canada, 352 pages, $24.95 Claire’s an English actor now in New York City without work or a green card. So she takes a job off the books for a law firm specializing in divorces. Claire’s role is to use her beauty and her acting talent to set up cheating husbands. It’s employment that morphs into an even more dangerous job for the cops tracking one of her potential targets who may now be responsible for his wife’s murder. JP Delaney dresses up this intriguing premise with plenty of edgy stuff about the acting profession, the works and life of Baudelaire, and some turns in plot that are just slick enough to persuade readers that great and mysterious events are headed our way. Snap By Belinda Bauer Atlantic, 352 pages, $37.50 Jack Bright is a master burglar who has l i ghtfingered his way through 117 residences in England’s West Country town of Tiverton. Jack is 14 years old. He has two younger sisters whom the burglaries support. The kids’ mother has been murdered; their spineless dad has fled to parts unknown. One of Jack’s burglaries yields a clue to his mother’s murderer. Jack pursues it. So do some cops. Much excitement ensues. So do comic episodes. That’s the thing about Bauer’s crime novels: as well as shock and drama, she offers laughs along the way.