Richard Montanari combines some unusual ingredients (the ethnic sociology of Cleveland, Ohio; the poetry of T.S. Eliot; the eccentricities of e-mail and chat rooms) with some of the more familiar elements of genre fiction (the hungry journalist who lucks into a good story; a series of current crimes linked to an old atrocity) to excellent effect in The Violet Hour. Writer Nicky Stella--besieged by debts and responsibilities of his own--tries to save his career by finding out why poetry students who went to a party at Case Western Reserve University 20 years ago are suddenly dying in very nasty ways. With its eclectic mixture of new technologies and classical murder mystery plot, The Violet Hour is a sleek and dark story of delayed revenge. Montanari's well-received and equally chilling first thriller, Deviant Way, is available in paperback. --Dick Adler