THE LONE TRAVELLER

Thames Valley police superintendent Gregory Summers has just taken into custody Huwie Lee, a distraught Romany dad who killed his estranged wife when she wouldn't give him back their kids, and is looking forward to a sultry, homey night with young Angelica, his son's widow. . . when the call comes in about Jordan Abbot, a blond, blue-eyed child of six, who ought to be in bed, but isn't. Her sweetly arranged body is found hours later after good citizen Doug Cameron admits he saw her in the roadway heading toward the gypsy encampment, but lies about where he had been coming from. When pictures taken that afternoon place Jordan with the simple-minded gypsy lad Lashlo, the lynch-minded townsfolk surround his caravan. Summers, who can barely protect him, runs afoul of his bull-headed (and–bodied) dad and his fortune-telling mom, as well as their former brother-in-law, John Smith, released after 25 years in prison on charges of killing his wife and two kids. The inquiry is bogged down still further by anonymous letters and phone calls, filthy New Agers camped near the gypsies, and a TV appearance by Jordan's mom, lashing out at police inadequacies. Summers, treading judiciously through arcane Romany customs, old love triangles, past murders, and station-house malfeasance, tallies up yet more deaths before the gypsies and the hippie throwbacks decamp for good.

Kelly (Quick Brown Fox, 1999, etc.) has a deft touch with problem relationships, including May-December romances, parent-child expectations and reconciliations, and supervisor-underling battles at work. Middle-aged Summers is comfy company, but a wise-child Romany offspring steals the show.