THRILLERS

The Double Eagle

By James Twining (Harper Collins, $24.95).

Grade: C

The premise of James Twining's new book is the disappearance of, perhaps, the world's rarest coin: a 1933 gold $20 American Double Eagle.

Four hundred fifty-five thousand Double Eagles were minted in 1933 but were never put into circulation, as Franklin Roosevelt signed a decree making it illegal to hoard gold. The entire lot of coins, minus only a handful, were melted down into bullion in 1937. One such coin, owned by Egyptian King Fahrouk, recently sold for more than $7 million, making it the most expensive coin ever sold.

All of this makes Twining's book at least mildly interesting to those of us without a numismatic bent.

What would happen if you had bought that coin for millions and then learned there were more out there? It would devalue your coin significantly. That's the fictional basis for part of this book.

A priest is knifed and thrown into the Seine. Only later is a Double Eagle found in his stomach. Meanwhile, in New York, cat burglar extraordinaire Tom Kirk is stealing a Fabergé egg from a private collection. And in Fort Knox, Ky., someone has managed to walk off with a handful of Double Eagles.

FBI agent Jennifer Browne is assigned to the case and soon zeros in on Kirk. A small piece of DNA left at the egg robbery seems to prove he was responsible, and the theory is that the rogue CIA operative had something to do with the Fort Knox heist.

Kirk soon is able to prove his innocence in the coin theft, and Browne reluctantly offers him clemency for his help. Their search takes them from Paris to Istanbul and back again in a race to discover the truth about the missing coins and straight toward the double-cross awaiting them.

The Double Eagle comes as close to The Da Vinci Code as anything recently out at combining interesting historical facts with hackneyed, amateurish plotting and dialogue and two-dimensional characters. The Double Eagle is not a bad book, but then, the world is full of not-bad books.

- Peter Mergendahl

MYSTERY

Nervous Water

By William G. Tapply (St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95)

Grade: A-

Here's a mystery to soothe your inner Yankee, if you happen to have one - that small, still voice that reminds you to sit up straight and turn off the lights when you leave the room.

Brady Coyne, the low-key hero of this long-running series by William G. Tapply, is a gentlemanly Boston lawyer with a Brittany spaniel named Henry David Thoreau and a penchant for gin and tonic at the end of the day. He also has a penchant for running across dead bodies, which he has managed to do about 20 times.

Tapply is something of a grand old man of the genre (well, not really old), with 25 mysteries to his name, as well as a widely used textbook called The Elements of Mystery Fiction. He's also an expert and prolific writer on fly-fishing.

Fishing - but not fly-fishing - plays a role in Nervous Water, Tapply's latest. Coyne recalls boyhood summers in southern Maine with his mother's family, crusty Down-Easters, when his Uncle Mose, an aging lobsterman, gets in touch. Mose has lost contact with his adopted daughter and asks Coyne to find her. She has disappeared under circumstances that are just off enough to warrant a tiny hint of suspicion.

The discreet but dogged Coyne keeps digging, and soon that tiny hint gets quite a bit larger with the murder of the cousin's ex-boyfriend, a college professor and one of the many superior characters in this book.

Nervous Water has an unassuming style that belies its powerful and often lovely writing - especially on the subjects of fish and fishing. If you yearn for the crisp air of New England or a place where folks say "ayuh" instead of "yeah," give Tapply a try. And be sure to bring along the gin and tonic.

- Jane Dickinson

Creepers

By David Morrell (CDS Books, $24.95).

Grade: A

David Morrell always will be best known as the man who created Rambo in the cult classic First Blood. That was more than three decades and 30 books ago. Yet the author proves, in Creepers, that the ability to create edge-of-your- seat tension and a charismatic Byronic hero has not abandoned him. In fact, the protagonist in the new novel is, in many ways, superior to his iconic creation.

While Frank Balenger of Creepers possesses many of the same larger-than-life qualities as John Rambo, this new hero also has his own human frailties, and his purpose goes far beyond his own survival.

In the notes that follow the novel, Morrell explains his inspiration - the burgeoning popularity of "urban exploration." All over the world these explorers, known as "creepers," are legally and illegally investigating condemned and abandoned buildings and other sites. Thousands of Web pages are dedicated to the hobby on the Internet.

The narrative begins as Balenger, a purported journalist assigned to write an article on the phenomenon for The New York Times Sunday Magazine, sets out with three college students and their professor to break into The Paragon Hotel, a monument to art deco architecture on the Jersey shore. In one week the hotel will be demolished.

As the tale unfolds, readers learn each character's true motivation for the adventure, and the building takes on its own sinister characteristics. So, despite the lack of supernatural elements, Creepers is as much a haunted-house story as it is a thriller.

As the intrepid group makes its way through wastewater tunnels into the building and up floor after floor, they are constantly attacked by both anticipated and unexpected perils. Rotten floors and steps give way beneath them; huge rats and other vermin harass them; and the eccentric former owner set traps in a myriad of secret passageways he had built in the walls.

But there is more to fear. An amoral band of thugs also has its sights set on anything of value that might be left in the edifice. And there's nothing to keep them from murdering Balenger and his mates. The demolition will destroy the evidence.

Morrell gradually unfolds each layer of Balenger's persona. A former Special Forces operative, he has his own score to settle with The Paragon and anyone inside. With Rambo-like guile, he may be the match for each of the terrors the night has to offer.

Creepers is a treat for fans of Morrell's early works and a demonstration of a mature writer at the top of his craft.

- Mark Graham

CHILDREN

Tickle the Duck!

By Ethan Long (Little, Brown, $10.99, all ages).

Grade: A-

A cranky duck goads readers into tickling him in this silly book that'll make you snicker.

At first glance, it appears to be a touch-and-feel book aimed at babies; a fuzzy oval cutout stares up from the duck's tummy on the cover. But then, the bossy duck booms from his speech bubble on the inside front cover "WHATEVER YOU DO . . . DON'T YOU DARE TICKLE ME HERE!" as he points to another cutout on his tummy, and it seems toddlers and preschoolers are the readers who will be most amused.

A lot of hees, ha-has, quacks and snorts greet readers as the duck has a good belly laugh. This continues, with the duck ordering readers to stop tickling him, as he points to the bottom of a foot and lifts his arm to reveal a soft patch in his pit.

There's no real message here, just a lot of fun. The duck may ask readers to stop tickling him, but by the book's end, he has a different idea: "Do it again," he says.

- Natalie Soto

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