Chris Knopf. Short Squeeze. New York: St. Martins, 2009. Print.

Hamptons’ (i.e. eastern Long Island, New York) real estate lawyer Jackie Swaitkowski gets an unusual phone request. An apparently wealthy homeowner named Sergey is looking for help in an eviction. But it is not about a deadbeat renter, it is to evict a sister-in-law who came from out west last year for his wife’s funeral and never left.

The next time Jackie hears from Sergey, it is night time and he is complaining that his sister-in-law has locked him out of his own bathroom. A few hours later he calls again. It is already past midnight, so Jackie figures the call can wait. At two in the morning, she gets a call from the police. They have found the body of a man on the highway. It looks like a hit and run and the only thing in his pockets is her business card. Yes, it is Sergey.

Yes, this is a mystery, and Jackie will do her best to solve it. It is a clever and complicated story in which hardly anyone is really as he or she appears. In that sense, it is an Agatha Christie. But there is a noirish edge as well. Jackie, our first person narrator, is lapsed Irish Catholic widow whose idea of relaxing is going to the beach, smoking pot, and reading St. Theresa of Avila.

I give credit to Mr. Knopf, the author, for getting the voice of a female narrator. For mystery lovers, it is a clever read. And virtually every detail matters. Dame Agatha would be proud. And, frankly, he gets the East End of New York’s Long Island a bit more realistically than, uh, certain TV show with a revenge theme does. At least in Knopf’s Long Island the birds are terns and ospreys. You won’t see any vagrant pelicans here.