There are about 1,600 books on the shelves in my house. Actually, they don't all fit on the shelves; many are in piles, some stacked behind each other.

There was a time when the books were in alphabetical order by author so I could find what I wanted when it was time to re-read a book or loan it to a friend. I can't do that any more.

I don't have room for more shelves. I'm starting to think the unthinkable -- getting rid of some books.

About half of my collection is detective stories.

Of course, I read other kinds of books, both fiction and nonfiction. For example, on the recommendation of friends, I recently finished "Coming into the Country," a book about Alaska by John McPhee. It's not new -- published in 1977 -- but it's beautifully written. I recommend it.

But for relaxation, I turn to mysteries. My favorite detectives rely on their brains, not guns and violence, to solve crime.

I recently added a police Lt. Steven McCord to my list of detective favorites. Both McCord and his creator, Donald Pfarrer, are vastly different than any in my experience -- or my collection.

I've been hooked on detective stories since I discovered Sherlock Holmes when I was about 10 years old. I moved from Holmes to S.S. Van Dyne's stories, written in the 1920s, featuring intellectual sleuth Philo Vance. Then to Nero Wolfe novels by Rex Stout and Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason.

My bookshelves are filled with whodunits featuring Jim Chee (author J.A. Jance), Kay Scarpetta (Patricia Cornwell's star), Alex Delaware (author Jonathan Kellerman) and many other popular writers.

Many detective stories follow a pattern. Readers know what to expect from Holmes, Mason, Delaware and their fellows-in-crime-solving.

That's certainly not the case with McCord, the main focus of "A Common Ordinary Murder" by Pfarrer. There is nothing common, ordinary or predictable about this book, or its author, who I have known personally for more than 30 years.

On one level, this is a compelling murder mystery, with the usual (and unusual) twists to unravel. But even more it is a compelling story about McCord, a longtime police officer, who struggles to deal with two gruesome killings, his wife's deeply held Catholic beliefs, his own disbelief, torment over what becomes an agonizing love affair, the possible disintegration of his marriage and doubts over whether he should remain in police work or become a lawyer.

Complex, indeed, but welcome complexity.

To my own surprise I found myself turning pages as eager to follow McCord's struggles with faith, fidelity and relationships as to discover more clues leading to the killers.

At first, the murder of an elderly political activist seems to be the sort of ugly but routine crime that cops may consider common and ordinary. It becomes far less so when a second victim -- the activist's daughter -- is found raped and murdered.

As McCord seeks clues and suspects, his personal life falls apart. He doubts the value of his decades as a cop and starts taking classes in law school.

"You. A criminal defense attorney? A traitor?" asks Sgt. Gil Hughes, once McCord's mentor, now his second-in-command. "Turn into a snake at your age and crawl for money."

As McCord agonizes over his future and the brutality of the murders, he becomes infatuated with a nurse at a local hospital. Step-by-difficult-step, we follow McCord toward infidelity. He loves his wife and children but is inexorably drawn to an affair that is as pivotal to this book as the murders themselves.

The melded stories -- police work vs. law, faith and disbelief; deep, old love for wife and compelling new love for another woman -- twine with the murder. The combination takes this book to a dimension not often found in detective stories.

That didn't surprise me. I've read Pfarrer's earlier books. His first Vietnam war novel, "Neverlight," is the best book I have read about Vietnam. The Chicago Tribune called "The Fearless Main," Pfarrer's second Vietnam novel, "the gold standard for any other fiction to come out about the war."

Pfarrer knows what he writes about. His war novels draw from his experience as a Navy gunfire officer serving with the Marine Corps. He was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat V and the Purple Heart.

His detective novels -- he also wrote "Temple and Shipman" -- are based on detailed research and experience as a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal, where we were colleagues.

Pfarrer has always been a meticulous writer; he still uses a fountain pen, a process guaranteed to slow the writing. The result is well-crafted prose.

"A Common Ordinary Murder" is certainly that.

David B. Offer is the retired executive editor of the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel. E-mail davidboffer@hotmail.com.