Mysteries

Ever since her auspicious 1993 debut in Jan Burke’s “Goodnight, Irene,” Southern California newswoman Irene Kelly’s investigations have been very personal. The death of a close friend provided the motivation in “Goodnight.”

With each succeeding book, Burke has raised the emotional ante, and in her sixth, “Liar” (Simon & Schuster), the strong-willed but sensitive Irene faces more family crises than those of the Kennedy clan.

Still feeling the stressful effects of her police officer husband’s abduction (in 1997’s “Hocus”), Irene finds herself the prime suspect in the murder of an estranged aunt. Convinced that her only recourse is to learn more about her late mother’s side of the family, she begins poking at her roots. What emerges are secrets long buried, sweet eccentrics like cousin Travis, the traveling library clown; a bent private eye; and a killer determined to send her and Travis to meet their ancestors.

Burke, a witty and resourceful writer, obviously enjoys shaking her protagonist’s family tree. Readers should be just as happy over the suspenseful and surprising fallout.

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One is tempted to describe Blanche White, Barbara Neely’s series sleuth, as a combination of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlings. She does have the former’s flair for observation and deduction and the latter’s worldview. But it would be a crime to suggest that the middle-aged African American single-mother, housekeeper-detective is anything less than a truly original creation. Any section of “Blanche Cleans Up” (Viking), her third adventure in homicide and housework, will underscore that point.

Here she is, attempting servility at her politician employer’s party and overhearing an influential black preacher refer to his flock as Aunt Jemimas and Uncle Bens: “. . . Before she could stop herself, she turned abruptly and jabbed a sharp elbow into Samuelson’s lower spine, knocking him off balance and splashing whatever he was drinking onto his shirt. ‘Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima that, you . . . maggot!’ ”

Neely has filled her feisty heroine’s temporary job in the pol’s home with incident. Murder, pedophilia, blackmail, theft and adultery are all part of the murky mix. Testing Blanche’s mettle even more, the author also challenges her with teenage pregnancy, homophobia, vigilante justice and childhood exposure to lead paint. The lusty, outspoken Blanche manages to brighten nearly all of these gray areas, but the author might consider saving some of society’s woes for future books. There’s only so much a working woman should be asked to accomplish in the course of one assignment.

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With his last novel, “Multiple Wounds,” Southern California author Alan Russell made an abrupt genre shift from humorous whodunit to psychological suspense tale. His new fiction, “Shame” (Simon & Schuster), takes him even further into “silence of the lambs” country. Its hero is Caleb Parker, the hapless son of an executed serial killer, who has spent most of his life hiding Dad’s stigma. Even that painfully clouded existence was preferable to his present situation: He’s on the run from lawmen convinced that he’s following in his old man’s homicidal footsteps.

Somebody is. Caleb’s only chance is to find out who and why. Assisting him are a true-crime writer whose nonfatal brush with Caleb’s father resulted in publishing superstardom and a transvestite named Lola whose psychic abilities may or may not stem from a partial Lakota heritage. It is Russell’s intriguing conceit that Caleb’s father has had a profound influence on each of the characters and even in death still has them dancing to his tune.

The author has eschewed the gristlier aspects of the serial murders in favor of adding dimension to his leading characters. This is a better than fair exchange. Lovingly detailed descriptions of victims writhing under the torment of madmen are a dime a dozen, but a credible, flamboyant, emotionally egocentric but crisply logical creation like Lola is a crime fiction rara avis.

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The Times reviews mystery books every other Sunday. Next week: Rochelle O’Gorman Flynn on audio books.