APPARENT WIND

by Dallas Murphy ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 7, 1990

Dennis Loomis Jr. (nicknamed ""Doom"" during his stretch in the stir for writing a best-selling romantic novel and attributing it to Eleanor Roosevelt) is released to attend his crooked father's funeral in Omnium Key, Florida, and finds himself the inheritor of a waterlogged tract called the Omnium Settlement--and the target of Big A1 Brodnax and Donald Sikes, rival developers whose felonious determination to turn the property into Perfection Park goes back two generations. Turns out that dad Denny Loomis stole Omnium from Big A1 and Sikes, and to get it back they're willing to plant bombs, hire a hit man (one of whose jobs has included that same Loomis Senior), kidnap Doom, and force him at gunpoint to sign away his rights. But they haven't got a chance against Doom--""one stand-up hombre""--and his gaggle of buddies: fellow inmate Longnecker, a dabbler in explosives; scuba instructor Rosalind Rock (widow of Big Al's son Claudius) and her Seminole grandmother Lisa Up-the-Grove; Big Al's son Snack, who's turned against his old man; frazzled, corrupt Sheriff Lincoln Plotner (won over by the hope of getting on Ted Koppel); Doom's two accomplices in forgery, NyQuil-chugging Professor Goode and smooth-talking Duncan Feeney (who's already gone the Nightline route, having been exposed on live TV when Goode broke down); and two documentary filmmakers, Anne and Anne, who get practically everything on video. (Doom's ability to learn how to sail and dive by reading books is another killing advantage for the home team.) Once Doom's gang gets Big Al and Sikes gunning for each other by pulling off an increasingly elaborate series of frauds and masquerades, a lot of heavies get hurt or killed, and the video, which must be a honey, returns in the sprightly finale. Laid-back Boy Scout heroics with a genially cynical Florida background--a welcome follow-up to Murphy's New York-set debut, Lover Man (1987).

Pub Date: Jan. 7, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1990

Categories: FICTION