Within ten pages or so one can generally feel whether a book is good enough to stand up and be counted amidst the hundreds that are published each month. I sussed it by page seven of Trouble Comes Back, book three in Keith Snyder's series about three So Cal buddies and sometime amateur sleuths. Musician-composer Jason Keltner is helping out pal Martin with his mom's pusher boyfriend when they hook up with Dwight Cooper (AKA Uncle Trouble), a rock star in the super-nova phase of his career. Cooper hires the modern day Musketeers to keep his daughter safe, but the child is kidnapped and though Uncle Trouble is quick to blame his super-model ex-wife, Jason and Co. have their doubts. Smart, funny and way cool, Trouble Comes Back is something fresh in the amateur sleuth genre, and Snyder, with his eye for locale and ear for dialogue that snaps, crackles and pops, is a writer to watch.

—D.L. Browne