I caught up with two authors who have been around for a while, about whom I feel the need to make some noise. The first is Randy Wayne White and his tenth Doc Ford book, Everglades. This series is set in Florida and the sense of place is very powerful, thanks to Doc’s being a marine biologist. Doc himself is a great character—not very young, not very pleased with the world, not very pleased with himself, but ready to right wrongs and defend people. This book involves a former lover, her missing husband, a religious cult, Everglades ecology, and Native American struggles. Oh my yes, it will keep you entertained. Look for the scene where a drunk and self-pitying Doc has no other defense against a shark except to yell at it. I will be reading all of them.

I have no idea how I managed to avoid getting acquainted with the character Nina Reilly, but have started to remedy that by reading her latest, Presumption of Death by Perri O’Shaughnessy. This is set in the Santa Cruz Mountains instead of the usual South Lake Tahoe. Nina is another wonderfully complicated character with a past—and a future. In this one she comes to the rescue of her young assistant who is saved from a wildfire only to be accused of murder. Trying to uncover the truth pushes Nina into the lives of a small neighborhood with more secrets and hidden agendas than inhabitants, and her own life conflicts have to intrude occasionally. And, of course, now I will have to go back and start at the beginning of the series.

Two "sophomores" have second books out, and I can recommend that you not wait to try them. First, Nadia Gordon . . . how can anyone pass up food, wine, and a murder mystery? Sharpshooter is the first Sunny McCoskey mystery and is irresistible. The sharpshooter is a supremely evil little bug that kills vines, and not much short of tactical nuclear devices will stop it. In a small community like Napa there can be strong and opposing ideas regarding how to deal with this threat. During the day Sunny is the chef-owner of a small restaurant, and I knew I was going to like her the first time she doctored her coffee with red wine. This one is close to home and FUN.

Then I moved to Cape Cod with Rose Connors’ Absolute Certainty. Marty Nickerson is a prosecutor but she doesn’t normally see a lot of murders. She starts out with one that seems to be a slam-dunk, but the second starts to make her queasy. An appealing public defender has his suspicions, too. Marty’s bosses are not amused. For a well-plotted, complicated mystery, this book is incredibly moving. Connors has a real gift for involving the reader in the emotional tug-of-war that violent death creates. She may well be as adept at creating grief and fear as Janet Evanovich is at creating laughs—and the result is equally satisfying.

Since it begins with a murder, I get to talk about A Palestine Affair by Jonathan Wilson. This is a first novel, and we can pray for more. I’m reluctant to bill this as a mystery because the actual murder (a real one, the author told me) is almost beside the point. The setting is Palestine in 1924 with World War I and the Mandate breathing down everyone’s necks. The murder of a prominent Zionist sets off a chain reaction in the expat community that is the meat of the story. Psychological truth and moral ambiguity are the main gifts of this author, but the descriptions of summer in Jerusalem will warm up even our San Francisco summer. This elegant book will resonate for anyone who decides to give it a try—and probably shift some of the furniture in your mind a bit, too.