Southboro author releases 4th in series.

Byline: Bruce Desilva

''Wolverine Bros. Freight & Storage''

By Steve Ulfelder (Minotaur Books)

Steve Ulfelder's ''Wolverine Bros. Freight & Storage,'' the fourth book in his Conway Sax mystery series, solidifies the Southboro author's place as one of the best crime novelists to come out of Massachusetts since Dennis Lehane burst on the scene two decades ago.

Sax is an ex-con, a former race car driver and a skilled mechanic who is fiercely loyal to his friends -- especially those in the maverick Alcoholics Anonymous group he credits with saving his life.

So when Eudora Spoon, a group member and close friend who is dying of cancer, asks Sax to track down her missing son, Kenny, he immediately sets off for Los Angeles where Kenny has been pursuing an on-again, off-again acting career.

There, he learns Kenny has been kidnapped by a violent street gang, rescues the young man and escapes through a hail of bullets. But shortly after Sax returns Kenny to his family home in Massachusetts, Eudora is murdered.

Sax, not one to trust the authorities to do their jobs, vows vengeance. But against whom?

Did the street gang, which has a long reach...