Johnny Deal has never lived on easy street, but things have been extra tight since the South Florida real estate bust put the squeeze on his small construction business. His luck runs dry when his wife is run off a bridge. Les Standiford is the author of Spill.
What is it about Florida? It's a magnet for "unusual" characters and this book is full of them. The Kirkus review in the editorial section does a wonderful job of telling the key plot points so I won't be redundant.I liked a number of things about this book. Johnny/Jack Deal is a very appealing protagonist. While I will always have a bit of a crush on Travis McGee, he isn't exactly a everyday sort of guy. Deal is very much an everyman caught in a vortex of events that are beyond his control or understanding. He responds with a nice mix of anger, humor and action. The supporting cast is also well done - particularly Leon, the heavy for the bad guys. He's strickly a character out of the Hiaasen school of Florida wackos.I'll be reading the sequel to this book (Raw Deal) soon although I am a bit perplexed as to how Deal will continue to find himself involved in murder. My father was a contractor and the most crime he ever saw was the periodic stealing of materials from a job site. Still, if Jessica Fletcher could encounter a body a week, I'm sure Deal can too.
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