JUST ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE

by A.E. Maxwell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 8, 1984

Fiddler"" is the one-name-only narrator/hero in this quasi-mystery debut, an independently wealthy California violinist who does private-investigations for the fun (or the nobility) of it: ""After you've bought everything you thought you ever wanted, drunk ancient and unpronounceable wines, eaten ancient and unpronounceable cuisines, chased and caught the best ass on this or any other coast--what then?"" This first case comes up as a favor to ex-wife Fiora, a top investment banker whose beloved twin-brother Danny has disappeared. Furthermore, agents from US Customs are after him. So Fiddler looks into Danny's company Omnitronix, which exports high-tech items to Europe. By the time that Danny turns up murdered, it has become apparent that Omnitronix is in the process of illegally exporting a semiconductor chip factory--piece by piece--to an Iron Curtain country, with Russian diamonds as payment. And, while Danny's partner Volker (KGB!) sets out to complete this dastardly operation, even kidnapping sexy Fiora, Fiddler scrambles to save his ex-wife and foil the villains--also contending, along the way, with ruthless anti-Soviet Vietnamese agents and some tricky FBI types. Routine, farfetched tangles and showdowns--thickened by Fiddler's humorless, verbose narration, which becomes unintentionally funny in its relentless, amateurish use of musical imagery. (On a single page: ""Fragments fell together into a symphony. . . swelling toward harmonics that would shatter him like glass. . . the end was one movement away. . . Was there any time before the final movement? Time to rewrite the score. . . There was another aspect to this modern symphony that nagged at me; who the hell was on the podium?"")

Pub Date: Feb. 8, 1984

ISBN: 0979270960

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1984

Categories: FICTION