After a contrivance-filled opening, bestseller Baldacci's entertaining sequel to 2019's One Good Deed finishes strong. In 1949, WWII veteran and ex-con Aloysius Archer is headed for Bay Town, Calif., where he hopes to get a job with a PI firm, when he decides to stop in Reno, Nev. After refusing a stranger's request to protect the man from his enemies, Archer wins big at roulette and befriends Liberty Callahan, a café dancer who hopes to become a Hollywood star. When Archer and Callahan stumble on three thugs assaulting the man in need of protection, Callahan shows off her firearms skill. Archer and Callahan decide to travel together, but more violence ensues before the pair reach Bay Town. There, Archer is hired by the PI firm, which has been retained by a mayoral candidate to thwart a blackmailer threatening to expose his extramarital affair. Multiple murders follow. Baldacci provides a nicely twisted motive for the homicides, though the prose can be purple ("Smoke curled off the end of the cigarillo and lifted to the sky like a fragment of a memory gone to Heaven"). Fans of classic L.A. noir will be satisfied. Agent: Aaron Priest, Aaron M. Priest Literary. (Apr.)

In One Good Deed (2019), Baldacci introduced readers to WWII veteran Aloysius Archer. An ex-con on parole, Archer was forced to solve a murder in order to clear his own name. Now, with 1950 just around the corner, Archer is in Bay Town, California, working for a famous private eye. Soon he's knee-deep in a conspiracy that involves a local politician. Murder quickly follows. Archer and his employer, former FBI agent Willie Dash, put their lives on the line to expose the corruption that's rotting Bay Town from the inside out. Baldacci, whose novels range from hits (the Sean King/Michelle Maxwell series) to misses (the John Puller series), definitely is onto something with Archer. He's a very interesting guy, in a rough-and-tumble way, and Baldacci renders Archer's postwar world with the kind of vivid detail that catches a reader's eye--a flash of color here, a particularly good description there--just enough to set the scene without getting in the way of the narrative. Familiarity with One Good Deed is not required, but readers new to the series will definitely want to catch up on what they've missed.