This Week's Books. Business is slow now that the Bilingual Education Conference has left , so I'm getting a lot of reading done. Here's what I've finished recently.

Viva Las Vengeance by Daniel Klein. The third in the Elvis detective series. This one is set in Vegas in 1964, and has the King solving a series of crucifixion style murders involving people who have just been made fun of by an insult comedian patterned after Don Rickles. The plot also involves feuds between rival casinos, brothels, and wedding chapels. Along the road to crime solving, Elvis crosses paths with strippers, hippies, religious fanatics who think Elvis is the Savior, hit men, crooked cops, and a Hunter S. Thompson style journalist. As the mystery progresses, Elvis explores his own religious beliefs and explores his own spirituality by reading Autobiography of a Yogi. Another great book from Klein, combining history, humor, a gripping mystery and an accurate and compelling portrait of Elvis. Highly recommended!

Lost Light by Michael Connelly. Another excellent Harry Bosch mystery by one of today's best hard-boiled writers. This one has the now retired LAPD detective Harry going after an unsolved murder of a young woman that is somehow linked to a robbery involving $2 million stolen from a movie set. Only Connelly can make page after page of a guy pouring over old case files and newspaper clippings fascinating, and he does it by taking us through Bosch's mental process as he pulls the facts together. Not as complex, or as tormented and haunting as some of the Bosch books, but a quick and involving read nonetheless.

Murphy's Law by Rhys Bowen. The first in the Molly Murphy series by the author of the wonderful Wales-set Constable Evan Evans series. This series features a young Irish lass in 1901, who has fled Ireland for America after killing a man in self-defense during an attempted rape. Taking charge of two young children for a ill mother who can't make the trip to America, Molly finds herself trying to solve the murder of an Irish bully on an overnight stay at Ellis Island. Bowen fills the book with rich historic detail, a great sense of humor and a complex plot full a twists and surprises.