Hot Shot

At the start of Ruffin’s run-of-the-mill debut, the discovery of the half-naked body of Caroline Quitman, the 22-year-old daughter of Louisiana senator Harry James Quitman, on a pier in Gulf Front, Fla., presents the town’s police chief and sole detective, Samuel “Coop” Cooper, with his first serious crime in his 11 years on the panhandle town’s force. The murder of a possible witness raises the stakes. Coop, a former Tallahassee homicide detective, is perfectly willing to let the FBI take over, until he meets attractive FBI agent Shelley Brooke. When early clues suggest a New Orleans mob connection, Coop decides to go there and see what he and his NOPD buddy, Det. Neal Feagin, can dig up. As Coop tangles with Don Carmine Carrabba and the don’s henchmen, it becomes clear his investigative skills are a little rusty. Some humorous and romantic touches lighten a freshman effort that otherwise offers only familiar genre types (the corrupt politician, the brutal mob enforcer, etc.). (July)