DEEP KILL

Indestructible, one-armed New Orleans p.i. Micah Dunn (The Caesar Clue, etc.) gets a case he'd rather not have—his friendly, homespun auto-mechanic Calvin Autry has been accused of molesting black teenager Arthur Augustine, and Calvin wants to know who's set him up and why. Micah starts by talking to the mechanic's garage landlord, Herman Villiere, who's into drugs and has dissipated an inherited fortune in record time; to Calvin's neighbor Virgil Bonchaud, who also knew his wife, Marie, before she ran off to California some years before; to the Augustine family's politically savvy minister Gabriel Condon and to Calvin's son Melville. Along the way Micah makes some disquieting discoveries about his client, but, meanwhile, young Arthur is found murdered; Calvin disappears; so does Scott, the college-age son of Micah's love Katherine Degas. Our hero is shot at, tied up, beaten up, and nearly burnt up before he emerges quietly triumphant, having figured out the offbeat motive behind the mayhem and trapped his quarry. Fast, good-natured combo of macho violence and current sensitivities. Add a plus for lovers of New Orleans.