Paradise Dogs

Florida real estate agent Adam Newman is a befuddled and besotted charmer who wants what he can't have and pretends to be what he isn't in this zany second novel from Martin (Days of the Endless Corvette). This goofy story reads like a long, intricate joke, calling into its service a hot dog restaurant, mistaken identities, missing diamonds, oily land speculators, silly romance, a Commie plot, and a lovable main character whose "head looked like a beach ball someone had partially inflated before giving up." It is 1965, and Adam is trying to win back his ex-wife, Evelyn, with a corny line and $250,000 in loose diamonds borrowed from a friend. However, hapless Adam loses the diamonds, is rejected by Evelyn, can't quite squirm out of his engagement to a clingy younger woman, and gets more and more involved in suspicious land speculation that may be for a cross-Florida canal project or a Communist plot. It's a full-bore slapstick marathon in the tradition of Carl Hiaasen, but heavier on camp than caper. (June)