'Badlands': Cleveland novelist again sets a crime thriller in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT) - "Badlands" by Richard Montanari; Ballantine ($26)

Someone should warn the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Bureau about Richard Montanari. This suspense novelist from Cleveland likes to set his serial-killer thrillers in the City of Brotherly Love.

He's at it again _ with gusto _ in "Badlands," his fourth outing for Philadelphia police detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano.

A sick killer is preying on the city's young female runaways, trolling for them in locales like 30th Street Station and the Free Library. But as much as he enjoys the hunt, he also savors teasing the police with obscure clues. Byrne and Balzano must try to figure out the pattern in his madness and decipher what twisted game this puzzle master is playing.

The thriller takes its name from the blighted area in North Philadelphia where the killer, known only as Ludo, likes to arrange his bodies.

Early on, the detectives search for a victim in the neighborhood: "The other side of the street offered a colorless quilt of battered row houses, stitched between hoagie shacks, wig shops, and nail boutiques, some open for business, most shuttered, all with fading, hand-lettered signs, all cross-hatched with rusting riot gates. The upper floors were a tic-tac-toe of bedsheet-covered windows with busted panes.

"North Philly, Jessica thought. God save North Philly."

The monstrous villain is served up in chilling and vivid detail, but the rest of this sprawling cast of characters never really comes alive. The streets of Philadelphia do, however, along with its parks, fountains, rivers and architecture.

Throughout "Badlands," Montanari offers a richly researched if unflattering portrait of our fair metropolis. He travels as far afield as the Chester County Book and Music store on Paoli Pike, where Byrne ventures to pursue a promising lead.

"Badlands" gets off to a jolting start but grows formulaic as it nears the finish. Ludo puts the police on notice that he has abducted three more girls and plans to dispatch them at prescribed intervals, setting off a desperate citywide scramble to stop him.

This confrontational plot twist seems well outside the killer's M.O. In fact, it's a rather transparent ploy to ratchet up the suspense. But for most of "Badlands," Montanari carries off his Grand Guignol with real flair and confidence.

And lots of local color.

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© 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer.