Lair of the Lizard

The most interesting moment in Ayres's fourth book (after last year's Night of the Panther) about Florida PI Tony Lowell comes when Lowell meets up with another PI named Joshua Croft in Santa Fe and finds him boozy and ""semi-retired... a man of leisure."" Croft is the hero of three well-received books by Walter Satterthwait set in that New Mexico city (Accustomed to the Dark, etc.). Other than this apparent homage among literary friends, little else in this routine outing rises to a level of fascination. Lowell, a ponytailed Vietnam vet and former top photographer of the glitterati, now lives in rural Florida, where he restores an old boat and does as little detective work as possible. But when his wide-eyed daughter, Ariel, asks him to find Alicia Sandoval, a friend from a New Age seminar in Santa Fe who seems to be fleeing from an abusive husband, Lowell drops his tools and takes off for that trendy city. Almost immediately, he's threatened by teenage Latino gangsters and gets involved in racial and familial strife. The social details ring true, but Ayres's soured tourist's take on the evils of Santa Fe quickly grows tedious--especially in contrast to the more measured judgments to be found in Satterthwait's books. (Nov.)