Crime: Amagansett will probably only be found on the crime shelves in bookshops and, in a way, it is a crime novel: it involves a murder, an amateur sleuth and a professional policeman joining forces to solve it, and the usual cast of characters, all with something or other to hide.
But if you're someone like myself, whose palate for thrillers has become jaded by tales of serial killers, supernatural forces at work, blood, in-your-face descriptions of autopsies, and extreme examples of violence, then this beautifully written, character-driven book, with its exotic Long Island Sound locale and lyrical descriptions of the sea and the men in ships who battle its various moods, is definitely the one for you.
Set just after the second World War, its two main protagonists are Conrad Labarde, a second-generation Basque immigrant and veteran of the war, and Tom Hollis, an embittered though honest policeman who has been demoted and sent to the lonely outpost of Amagansett because of his revelations of corruption among his former colleagues in Manhattan.
Uneasy at first in their relationship, the two men eventually trade suspicion for mutual trust as they battle through the twin bulwarks of wealth and socialite disdain to unravel the mystery of the death of beautiful Lillian Wallace.
Labarde's reason for pursuing the case is one of revenge, as he was in love with the victim, while Hollis is one of those stubborn loners who will sacrifice all in their search for justice and the moral good.
Contrasting the world of the new rich, who have come to the coast to build their mansions, with that of the fishing community, whose way of life is fast disappearing, and combining this with an absorbing mystery, Mark Mills has written a first novel that reverberates in the mind with the force of a literary epiphany.
• Vincent Banville's last crime novel was Cannon Law, published by New Island