cover image The Billion Dollar Catch

The Billion Dollar Catch

John J. McNamara. Dodd Mead, $0 (311pp) ISBN 978-0-396-08938-4

Mike Flaherty is a happy-go-lucky Gloucester, Mass., fisherman married to the granddaugther of New England mobster Giovanni Barerra. When Barerra begins smuggling narcotics, he hires his grandson-in-law to set up the operation. As time passes, Flaherty, who could hardly make ends meet and drove a rusty pickup becomes an extremely wealthy man who races yachts and drives a Lamborghini. But there is a price to pay for this ill-gotten wealth, and soon Flaherty's world falls apart. McNamara (The Money Maker can't seem to make up his mind about Flaherty; although some bad things happen to the protagonist, he is still better off at the novel's end than when he started. The author's gratuitous editorializing, cliched characterizations, unbelievable and trite plot twists and mediocre prose make one wonder whether McNamara had intended further revisions before his death last October. (April)