Scene of the Crime: This month's mystery selections

This month's selection of summertime crime includes new books by a clutch of Northwest writers, a National Book Award winner and a promising first-time novelist.

Recovering Portland attorney Phillip Margolin's "Fugitive" (Harper, 352 pp., $26.99) is the latest in his string of reliably exciting and fast-moving legal thrillers. Criminal lawyer Amanda Jaffe's new client, Charlie Marsh, has an intriguing background: He's a con man who fled to a violent African nation after being implicated in the murder of a U.S. Congressman.

Charlie was once a favorite of the (mythical) African country's vicious leader, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Idi Amin. But when the dictator learns that Charlie's been having an affair with his favorite wife, Charlie decides that facing the music in America beats facing the dictator's wrath. Jaffe lands the job of defending him, bankrolled by a tabloid eager for the con man's story.

"The Rivers Run Dry" (Thomas Nelson, 336 pp., $14.99 paperback original) is a sure-footed second novel by Issaquah writer Sibella Giorello.

Raleigh Harmon, a geologist turned FBI agent, has recently relocated from Virginia to Seattle. Though beset by mistrustful colleagues and personal problems, she proves to be key in the search for a missing woman.

A journalist who worked at the Richmond Times, Giorello uses her considerable writing skills, in part, to explore Christian themes — but lightly, in a way that will appeal to crime-fiction fans along the religious/spiritual continuum. In other words: You don't have to be Christian to enjoy her books.

The prolific and always entertaining Seattle author Mary Daheim offers "The Alpine Uproar" (Ballantine, 365 pp., $24), her latest slice of wry starring Emma Lord, newspaper publisher and editor (and shameless Nosy Parker) in a fictional town somewhere in the Cascades.

A barroom fight ends in death, and a guy confesses right away. The problem is that the witnesses, most of them three sheets to the wind at the time, have different stories — and all had reason to see the victim dead. And could this incident be related to a devastating car accident? Emma and her pals go to work to winkle out the truth.

Mary Daheim will sign "The Alpine Uproar" at noon June 23 at Seattle Mystery Bookshop, 117 Cherry St. (206-587-5737, www.seattlemystery.com).

Jay Porter, a former black activist, is now a down-at-the-heels lawyer. He works hard, hoping to make a better world for himself and his pregnant wife. But Jay's life derails when he saves a white woman from drowning. Despite misgivings, which include worries about his activist past, Jay is forced by his good deed to confront shady circumstances high in the corporate world.

That's "Black Water Rising" (Harper, 448 pp., $25.99), a strong and whip-smart debut from Attica Locke. Set in the author's native Houston, it's both a compelling mystery and a sharp, literate portrait of the social layers within that city's black community. The good, the bad, the subtle but relentless humiliation — it's all vividly there.

Denis Johnson, whose "Tree of Smoke" won the National Book Award, is the latest "serious" novelist to dip into the crime milieu. (John Banville and Kate Atkinson are two others.)

His "Nobody Move" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 208 pp., $23), originally a serial in Playboy, is a brief, bracing and mordantly funny trot through the Land of Noir. We've seen the basic setup and characters before, but it's good to see a talented writer ring new changes on the theme.

Set in the seedier corners of Bakersfield, Calif., the book revolves around two classic figures. There's your debt-riddled gambler (with the surprising hobby of singing in a barbershop chorus), and there's your seductive vixen intent on scooping up embezzled millions. Violence, vivid set pieces and droll (if slightly wooden) dialogue ensue.

Seattle writer Adam Woog's column on crime fiction appears on the second Sunday of the month in The Seattle Times.