Veteran of three taut but traditional thrillers (with William B. Montalbo: Powder Burn, 1981; Trap Line, 1982; A Death in China, 1984), Hiaasen unveiled an original madcap voice steeped in black humor when he finally soloed in last year's satirical crimemeller, Tourist Trap. Here, he sings on in that same fine, mordant key as a Florida P.I. tackles corruption in the quirky milieu of big-time bass fishing. In Hiaasen's whacked-out world, only photographer-turned P.I., R.J. Decker and his ex-wife Catherine have their heads screwed on straight. So despite Catherine's remarriage, the two stay in close touch when Decker plunges into deep water after rich bass-fishing buff Dennis Gault hires him to prove that archrival Dickie Lockhart cheats at the fishing tourneys Lockhart invariably wins. Decker is hot-tempered and quick-fisted, but even with Catherine's help he's no match for the slew of oddball villains standing between him and a successful case: not only Lockhart and his nympho sister, Lanie; and Rev. Weeb, a TV-preacher who funds Lockhart's bass-fishing TV series and promotes condos built on PCB-riddled sludge; but also Gault's (he's a villain too, framing Decker for murder) hired thug Thomas Curl, who kidnaps Catherine while lurching around with the decaying head of a pit bull clamped onto his arm. Lucky for Decker, help comes in the Paul Bunyansized Skink, an eccentric fisherman who happens to be an incognito, embittered exgovernor of Florida. With Skink at his side, Decker exposes Lockhart as a cheat, Gault as a killer, and Weeb as a fraud—and by rescuing Catherine, rekindles their own true love. Not a perfect mystery/farce—Decker is too weak a protagonist, with trappings too standard-P.I., to properly anchor the wild goings-on. Still, with its byzantine plot and wonderful, weird denizens, this is one of the most delightfully inventive and entertaining crime novels of the year.
Pub Date: Jan. 12, 1987
ISBN: 0446695661
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1987
All three tales offer a dash of detection, but their strong suit is hometown charm.
Veteran Maine crime writers Meier, Hollis, and Ross (Yule Log Murder, 2018, etc.) team up once more for a trio of holiday-themed treats.
Haunted houses, a holiday staple, are an especially good fit for the authors’ folksy Down East setting. When the decrepit house at 66 School St. in Meier’s “Haunted House Murder” is purchased by a young couple, the good citizens of Tinker’s Cove have high hopes for its renovation—at least until the spooky lights and eerie noises emanating from the tower of the home make the local residents fear for the safety of their new neighbors. In “Death by Haunted House,” Hollis ups the ante. Not only does the couple that buys the creaky old place next door to Hayley and Danny Powell look and act peculiar, but Wendi Jo Willis, the real estate agent who sold them the house, disappears shortly after closing the sale. And in "Hallowed Out," Ross casts her net wide, offering a whole bundle of haunted houses for the price of one. To draw off-season tourists to Busman’s Harbor, Harley Prendergast, owner of the Lobsterman’s Wharf Motel, starts up a haunted house trolley tour. Some of his ghosts are questionable at best. But in the venue offering the best-documented of the local legends—the shooting of bootlegger Ned Calhoun—Prendergast’s guests get to witness a real-life shooting that leaves Spencer Jones, the actor who portrays Calhoun, undeniably dead.
All three tales offer a dash of detection, but their strong suit is hometown charm.Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4967-1996-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Griffiths, who is known for the Magic Men mysteries and the Ruth Galloway series, has written her first stand-alone novel...
A secondary school English department in West Sussex is turned upside down by a series of bookish killings.
Clare Cassidy is heading into middle age with just her teenage daughter, her faithful dog, her diary, and her teaching job to occupy her time. The most exciting part of her life may be the biography she hopes to write of R.M. Holland, a writer of gothic tales who once lived in the school where she works. But when one of her colleagues in the English department at Talgarth High is found murdered with a line from "The Stranger," the very same Holland story that has long obsessed Clare, left on a Post-it next to her body, she quickly realizes the murderer must be someone who knows an awful lot about her. This suspicion is confirmed when, the day before Halloween, Clare discovers that someone else has left her a note in her own diary. As the violence escalates, Clare and the police must figure out why the killer seems so fixated on Clare—and what a supernaturally tinged tale more than a hundred years old has to do with the quiet lives of small-town Brits. Griffiths alternates points of view among Clare, her 15-year-old daughter, Georgie, and DS Harbinder Kaur, the queer policewoman in charge of the murder investigation. Thrown into the mix are excerpts from "The Stranger," itself a delicious homage to writers like M.R. James. Though all these ingredients occasionally cause some structural unwieldiness, Griffiths (The Vanishing Box, 2018, etc.) hits a sweet spot for readers who love British mysteries and who are looking for something to satisfy an itch once Broadchurch has been binged and Wilkie Collins reread.
Griffiths, who is known for the Magic Men mysteries and the Ruth Galloway series, has written her first stand-alone novel with immensely pleasurable results.Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-57785-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
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