WICKED DEEDS

4 stars out of 5

Up to now, my only acquaintance with this author has come by way of "Infernal Night," a short story co-written with F. Paul Wilson for the David Baldacci-edited FaceOff in 2014. That's my bad; after reading this one - courtesy of an advance copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review - I'll make that mistake nevermore. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which adeptly mixes mystery and history and sprinkles it with the paranormal.

The plot also centers around one of my favorite story-tellers and poets, the late, great Edgar Allan Poe, who makes several ghostly appearances. The book is, you see, the latest in the "Krewe of Hunters" series, featuring historian Vickie Preston and FBI Special Agent Griffin Pryce. Members have been recruited to this unique paranormal FBI team not only because of their investigative skills, but also because they are able to communicate with the dead. On their way to their new home in Virginia - which will serve as home base as Vickie enters the rigorous FBI training academy in Quantico - they opt for a quiet, romantic visit in historic Baltimore.

Peaceful stopover? Fuhgettaboutit. Griffin gets a call from the FBI powers that be informing him that they're needed to help with a "bizarre" case; horror writer Franklin Verne has been found dead in the wine cellar of a the Black Bird, a Poe-themed Baltimore restaurant (for the record, Poe is buried in the city). It appears the death is a suicide - a recovering alcoholic who went off the wagon and on a drinking binge - but his widow, Monica, insists otherwise. The case is complicated by the fact that not a single soul saw him enter the restaurant - nor did they see any of the three dead blackbirds that now surround his body.

As they begin to assist local police with the investigation, Vickie and Griffin get their first visit from Poe, who claims to want to help solve the murder because it might provide clues to his own death way back when (although several theories abound, exactly how he died remains a mystery). In fact, a chunk of the story is a history lesson; it's all put together quite interestingly, woven in and around the investigation and the ghostly dreams and sightings by the main characters.

But wait, there's more: It comes in the form of a second dead body, which turns up during a seance led by a very kooky and almost totally unlikable character who believes she's got a direct connection to the dead (Vickie and Griffin, though, aren't quick to agree). Now, the FBI is called in officially, and the race is on to find the killer before he, or she, targets someone else and possibly puts the future life of Vickie and Griffin in jeopardy as well.

Once I got going, I found it hard to stop reading, and I apologize to "my" Ohio State Buckeyes for keeping one eye on my Kindle and the other on their game with Army (admittedly made a bit easier during the second half, when the Buckeyes pretty much ran rampant up and down the field). My only suggestion, for what it's worth, is to put the brakes on exclamation points at the ends of sentences. In my mind, they're like laugh tracks on TV comedy shows; if you have to tell me when to laugh, it's probably not very funny (and in any case, I prefer to make up my own mind). That said, this may be my first "Krewe" book, but it certainly won't be my last. Well done!

Wicked Deeds by Heather Graham (MIRA, September 2017); 384 pp.