Evil schemes from Western Mass. to the White House

The Armageddon Project
By Tom Sancton
Other, 357 pp., $24.95

McMansion
By Justin Scott
Poisoned Pen, 270 pp., $24.95

The Killing Moon
By Chuck Hogan
Scribner, 347 pp., $25

Crime fiction authors get to vanquish those they scorn, in print at least. Former Time magazine Paris bureau chief Tom Sancton sets his sights on President Bush and his allies in a hybrid political parody/thriller, "The Armageddon Project."

Paris-based journalist Sam Preston is our protagonist. In one of many plot holes, it's never quite clear why he agrees to investigate international arms trafficking, but investigate he does. Soon sources are inexplicably dropping information in his lap: "Well, I really shouldn't talk about this, but I kind of trust you, 'cause you're a fellow American and all," says an aide to the self-named "president" of Iraq's emerging Assyrian Christian Republic.

Preston amasses evidence that the US government is providing clandestine support and arms to Christian Assyrians. Soon, the CIA and Israeli and French intelligence are pursuing the journalist across Europe to intercept incriminating documents.

Sancton pillories the Bush administration with great glee. US president Jack Ritter , a born - again Christian who calls his CIA director "Chuckie-boy," gets compared with England's King James II. They both "came to power through family connections, got promoted beyond their abilities, and put their personal religious beliefs over their political responsibilities to their people." Ritter justifies providing arms to the Assyrian Christians as a "Holy War against evil." After all, they believe in the right god; never mind that they're sitting atop vast oil reserves.

General Richard Runter , head of special operations in Iraq and author of a runaway bestseller, "Jesus at War," puts it this way: "What is going on in Iraq today is a precursor of the return of Christ and the final, terrible battle of Armageddon."

Nothing subtle here.

The novel feels more like a political rant than an action-packed parable. There are so many redundancies -- lethal in a thriller -- that I couldn't help wondering if the book was rushed into print for fear that events would overtake it. Preston and his wife read like ciphers, propped on the page to deliver wooden dialogue that pushes the plot forward. Other characters are raging stereotypes, like Rafat Ganjibar , the 350-pound leader of Iraq's Assyrian Christian minority, and black soul singer Princess Tawana . A plethora of point-of-view characters telegraph what's about to happen, so little comes as a surprise.

In "McMansion," Justin Scott takes aim at greedy real estate developers who bulldoze New England's last remaining forests, drain wetlands, and build "five-bedroom behemoths" that "all look alike, despite mirrored floor plans and randomly scattered carbuncles of stone veneer." His villain is Billy Tiller , a man who never met a building code he couldn't subvert. Tiller comes to an appropriately gruesome end, ground to a bloody pulp beneath an expertly driven D4 Caterpillar. Police arrest 21-year-old Jeffrey Kimball , an ardent member of Earth Liberation Front ,

or ELF, whom they find sitting in the Caterpillar's driver seat.

Affable, self-effacing Ben Abbott , a local realtor and erstwhile private detective, is hired by Kimball's wealthy father's attorney to investigate. Affluent Newbury, Conn., is full of Tiller's dissatisfied customers and aggrieved neighbors, and Abbott finds plenty of suspects and reasons to sow doubt. But his secret weapon turns out to be his great-aunt Connie, with her off-the-wall insights -- if he can only figure out what she's talking about.

This fourth novel in a cozy-ish series is loaded with wry humor and deftly drawn characters -- a pleasant light read, perfect for a rainy weekend.

Chuck Hogan follows his award-winning novel "Prince of Thieves" with a much darker tale, "The Killing Moon." The hero is the imperfect, hunky Donald Maddox, a recently hired part-time police officer in the town of Black Falls, in Western Massachusetts. Maddox grew up there and has supposedly returned to settle his mother's estate. But his close ties with the retired police chief and his ultra-cool head and skill with firearms suggest that he's not just

some rookie marking time. He becomes a thorn in the

side of Sergeant Bucky Pail , a bully with a badge who,

along with his brother, treats Black Falls as his personal fiefdom.

You can almost smell the rot in this town that has been slowly disappearing since the local paper mill shut down. Mostly misfits, perverts, and failures still live there. As Maddox investigates a string of particularly gruesome murders, he's also trying to save the town itself.

For the first 250 pages, this book is so compelling that it's hard to put down. Character is Hogan's strength, and even minor players -- like the Zoo Lady, who takes care of a menagerie of injured pets, and the ponderous Walter Heavey, who can't convince the police that he heard gunfire -- seem to jump off the pages.

Then, with a twist that I won't spoil, the plot ventures into even darker territory and all-out terror. Hogan pulls out all the stops and ends with a long, drawn-out confrontation between Maddox and the villain. Sadly, this final act is over the top and feels tacked on. Less would have been more.

Hallie Ephron's "Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel: How to Knock 'Em Dead With Style" has been nominated for an Edgar Award.