PEARSON has more than six million copies in print, apparently. Well, this American crime writer is new to me, but a welcome discovery.

Forensic psychologist Daphne Matthews is drawn into a dark, bloody and dangerous place after she is called to the scene of a crime. A young woman lies dead beneath a bridge in Seattle; her boyfriend has a history of violence, her wayward brother, who slices fish for a living with a very sharp knife, is out for revenge.

Detective Lou Boldt, once Daphne's lover and still romantically charged, is investigating the disappearance of two women; his colleague John La Moia, a handsome sexual predator trying to mend his meandering ways, finds himself moving closer to Daphne - just as her life is endangered.

All their investigations drag them under the surface to a preserved city beneath the city, a many-roomed mausoleum of dusty shops, covered-in streets and long tunnels; this is a place of permanent night, haunted by those who have fallen out of everyday life.

Swift, economical writing is matched to a powerful sense of place, especially in the crucial underground scenes, which provide the setting for an exciting life-or-death chase.

A great thriller: easy to read, exciting, different enough to be interesting and charged with believable, fully human characters. And the good news is there are further Boldt and Matthews novels out there.

Updated: 09:37 Wednesday, April 28, 2004