Elegy for a Thief: A Detective Sergeant Gabriel Dunn Mystery

New York: Carroll & Graf Pub, 1993. First Edition. Hardcover, Ex-. Very Good/Very Good. The suicide of a young woman arouses the suspicions of police Sgt. Gabriel Dunn of Salem, Mass., in his second appearance, following Requiem for a Pos tman . Moira Doheny, suffering headaches after an automobile accident, oste nsibly kills herself with a pistol, leaving a typewritten note saying she c ould no longer stand the pain. Dunn's partner, Jake Myles, and Moira's fami ly accept the obvious; Dunn's doubts are fueled by the presence of two bull ets. Although pressed to leave the apparently open-and-shut case to work on a series of shop burglaries, he delves into Moira's life and finds out tha t she had run with bad crowds, taking up with young men she felt she could reform. Her most recent lover, Chris Alexei, is a talented safecracker resp onsible for many of the burglaries Dunn is being urged to investigate, incl uding the theft of a valuable collection of baseball cards. Further probing turns up other mysteries in Moira's life that may have led to her death. A powerful realism informs this solid, gritty procedural about a decent, com passionate, hard-working cop in a small working-class city.