32 CADILLACS

Hours after gypsy king Staley Zlachi tumbles down an escalator in a Steubenville, Iowa, department store, word goes out that the dying king is prepared to anoint his successor—and the two leading candidates, Rudolph Marino and Madame Miseria (also known as Yana), both decide to ingratiate themselves with the king by bringing him a pink 1958 Cadillac ragtop convertible (just like the one he drove to his own coronation) to be buried in. But the ragtop's only the icing on their cake, since Marino's running a beautiful scheme to swindle 31 other new Cadillacs out of Bay Area dealers for the trip east. A panicky call to Dan Kearny Associates, car repossessors extraordinaire, unleashes enough wildly inventive scams and counterscams—especially as DKA investigators Larry Ballard and Giselle Marc find themselves romancing Marino and Yana in order to plot against each other for that ragtop—to send a TV series into syndication, and Gores's fans into nirvana. Gores's first DKA novel since Gone, No Forwarding (1978) is the crown of a distinguished career. You'll wish the shenanigans could go on forever—and they almost do.