Still Waters.(Brief article)(Book review)

Still Waters Nigel McCrery. Pantheon, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-307-37703-6

The hero of British author McCrery's tepid thriller, DCI Mark Lapslie of the Essex police, suffers from synesthesia, a rare neurological condition that causes him to taste sounds. At the scene of what appears to be a run-of-the-mill car crash, Det. Sgt. Emma Bradbury shows Lapslie the corpse of an elderly woman, wrapped in plastic sheeting and unearthed when the car plowed into a field. Violet Chambers, they later learn, was poisoned with a common …