Poetic, complex, and multidimensional, Sallis's insect-titled crime novels about New Orleans detective Lew Griffin are unlike any other you're likely to crack open. The main treat is also the main mystery: What is it that makes Griffin, a middle-aged African American intellectual, tick? Told by him in the first person, Cricket, number four in the series, is ostensibly about his search for several missing young people, one of whom is his son. But there is no linear progression to the investigation. Instead, as filtered through Griffin's quick, contrary, memory-obsessed mind, the story shifts, switches, leaps back and forth in time. Peppered with images of intriguing events from Griffin's past, as well as references that range from Andre Gide to Woody Woodpecker, the story takes us to a conclusion that is both rewarding and, strange for Griffin, uplifting.

-Dick Lochte