Stray Cat

Charlie Gamble is a ""nopey'' (as opposed to a yuppie). Once a highly paid computer salesman, he now lives aboard a sailboat moored in Boston Harbor, relying on a variety of odd jobs to keep him afloat. One of the oddest is his attempt to rescue a dishy but larcenous young woman, Rosy, from a psychopathic killer who holds her hostage while he burglarizes the homes of her former lovers. Rosy herself is not above stealing from the rich: she has often worked a lucrative scam to relieve her ``marks'' of sizable sums. One of them, seeking revenge, has hired a hood to put Rosy out of commission. Charlie has to elude the killer, find Rosy and snatch her from danger, all without knowing who is where with whom. Some very neat plotting pulls these disparate elements together into a suspenseful and satisfying tale. Like Travis McGee, whom he very much resembles, Charlie seems destined to voyage through a series of adventures wherein character as well as story are winningly conveyed. (August)