I don’t know if GUILTY MINDS is Joseph Finder’s best book, but it’s my favorite thus far. This latest installment in the Nick Heller series hits on all eight cylinders from page one to its very last paragraph with nary a stall out.

Nick Heller is a private investigator for and of the rich and powerful. He runs a small, lean-and-mean office --- himself and two employees --- with a few under-the-radar independent contractors that he calls on as necessary. He is an almost total stranger to technology --- almost charmingly so --- which gives Dorothy, one of his two employees, a chance to strut her techy stuff and for Finder to explain from book to book all sorts of interesting things that we take for granted, such as the way that card readers work (and the way they don’t) and how hotels can monitor your comings and goings.

"Finder has done a masterful job of establishing a memorable character over a relatively short arc. His pacing, as always, is perfect."

Heller is retained through a short series of Russian nesting doll-type meetings to investigate a scandalous charge involving Jeremiah Claflin, the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. An internet scandal sheet is about to post an article accusing Claflin of retaining the services of a prostitute on three different occasions. The website appears to have Claflin dead to rights on the story: the name of the woman involved, the dates, the place, and just about everything else except intimate photos. Claflin vehemently denies the charges, and Heller has a little more than a day to prove they aren’t true. There are a few bumps in the road, including one “oh no” moment, but Heller ultimately gets the job done.

End of book? No, it’s just beginning. Heller is troubled by certain aspects of the whole matter, including why Claflin was targeted to begin with and who is behind it all. Heller proves himself to be the unlikely savior of the woman involved, but when tragedy strikes, he is more determined than ever to find out who is behind the curtain, pulling the strings. Accompanied by an extremely unlikely ally --- one for whom he develops an unforeseen attraction --- Heller follows a trail that is all but nonexistent through several twists and turns that become increasingly and progressively dangerous. He eventually reaches his journey’s end, but not without a surprising, sobering and violent cost.

GUILTY MINDS is only the third of the Heller novels, but Finder has done a masterful job of establishing a memorable character over a relatively short arc. His pacing, as always, is perfect. His practice of keeping things simple at the beginning of the story and slowly revealing the complexity of what is really going on serves him and his readers very well. One never becomes lost in the middle of Finder’s surefooted plotting and steady narrative, both of which are always interesting.

At the same time, GUILTY MINDS stands on its own, a strength that encourages newcomers to jump on and enables veteran readers of Finder’s work to smoothly pick up on one of their favorite characters without referencing what has gone before. Those who enjoy detective novels and/or political thrillers will find much to love here.