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Perhaps this spark of crazy irresponsibility is what is missing from North of Montana (Knopf; 293 pages; $23), by another promising first novelist, April Smith. The problem may be that Ana Grey, the main character, is a female FBI agent, and an unshakeable convention of crime fiction is that the FBI is inept, dull and pompous. A subplot in which a sexist boss blocks Grey's promotion is believable, though it doesn't do much to enliven the bureau's reputation for white-shirt-blue-tie tedium. Cop novels can plod occasionally, but this one, set in Los Angeles (Montana is a street, not the state), moves along well enough, in deliberate fashion, to sort out the intricacies of a Hollywood star's abundant drug supply. And to uncover a family mystery: why Grey's grandfather, an old cop who is dying of cancer, is so evasive about the father she never knew.
Smith is a solid, workmanlike writer, though her thriller has been hyped so relentlessly that readers who have encountered this blather storm will wonder whether somebody got titles mixed up at the printer's. A person-to-person endorsement would read something like, "This is pretty good; you might like it."