THE RULE OF THREES

4 stars out of 5

Given an ending that left me bewildered, a rather unrelatable main character and a plot I'd describe as disjointed, I'm almost surprised that overall I enjoyed reading this so-called novella - the latter a description I also don't understand since it's only a few pages shorter than many of the books I read these days. But aside from all that, while it's far from my favorite book by one of my favorite authors, the "stuff" in between the covers was enticing enough to keep me flipping through the pages almost nonstop. And yep, he's still a favorite author.

Special Agent Constant Marlowe - yes, you read that first name right - comes to Illinois small-town Clark Valley to commandeer an investigation into the brutal murders of a couple of local women. Not surprisingly, I spent a quite a bit of reading time wondering who on earth would give a name like that to a child, but I never found out (apparently, there are a few earlier books that include her in which it may have been explained, but I've not read them). Also not surprisingly, the local tobacco-chewing Sheriff resents her presence - don't they always? There's a contingent of Native Americans living in the area, one of whom, Zo Eventide, works with the sheriff and, partly because she's a female with a fierce sense of justice and fairness, forms an immediate bond with Constant.

Also in the mix is a group of neo-Nazis, who mostly keep to themselves; but at the moment, they're at a standoff with the aforesaid Native Americans over ownership of a plot of land. For whatever reason, Constant finds herself in the middle of that brouhaha as well - as if she doesn't have enough to do trying to track down a killer who leaves precious few clues. At least she can hold her own physically; she's been a professional boxer, and I have to say some of the scenes in which that comes into play are satisfying.

One local family (a husband, wife, daughter and son plus an older son who mysteriously went missing) become the focus because they were in the same area of the park as one of the murders at the same time and thus may have seen things they shouldn't have (even though they say they didn't). The hope is the killer will return to eliminate the potential witnesses and the cops will nab him (or her) before that happens.

There are several surprises along the way, keeping the story moving along - right up to that ending that I still don't "get." But I do know I'll be keeping a constant lookout for the next Constant - I can't say she'd ever be my BFF, but she sure is an interesting character. Many thanks to NetGalley, via the publisher, for the opportunity to get to know her by way of a for-review copy.

The Rule of Threes by Jeffery Deaver (Amazon Original Stories, March 2024); 261 pp.