BEYOND REDRESS

Despite the invasion of Florida by the veracious Nile monitor lizard, humans are still the most dangerous game.

Wealthy socialite Gwyneth Benbow wants private eye and game warden Harry Brock to find out who murdered activist Henrico Perez. Although his political activities have earned him many enemies, Perez’s death may be a more personal matter. Gwyneth was having an affair with Perez that led to her divorce. When she’s wounded, Harry not only considers her ex a suspect, but casts a cold eye on her first marriage, which ended in her husband’s death and a nasty scandal. Since Harry doesn’t have an enviable track record with women, he’s nervous about his blossoming relationship with Holly Pike, whom he met while solving the murder that widowed her (Death’s Long Shadow, 2011), and conflicted about going to see his first wife, who’s dying of cancer. A new complication arrives with a bang when Harry’s shot in the leg. He escapes death only by taking to the water near his home in a quiet Hammock he shares with his wise, elderly neighbor Tucker, Tucker’s dog and mule, and, lately, a few Nile monitor lizards. It seems absurd that anyone would want to kill Perez, Gwyneth and Harry. But since ballistics connect all three shootings, Harry resolves to brush aside his many personal problems and find the unusually determined killer before he becomes the next victim.

As easy to solve as most of Roby’s South Florida mysteries, but one that offers in compensation much steamy atmosphere, both in and out of the bedroom.