cover image Split Seconds

Split Seconds

Kevin Robinson. Walker & Company, $18.95 (220pp) ISBN 978-0-8027-5785-2

A paraplegic reporter is the intrepid and engaging detective in this highly promising mystery debut. Nick (Stick) Foster, a wheelchair-bound columnist for a small Florida newspaper, is crabbing in the Intercoastal Waterway with his friend Phil Stilles when they discover the body of Jim Woods, a computer genius attached to a NASA affiliate at the Kennedy Space Center. Although the death is officially dubbed accidental, Stick and the dead man's fiancee, Katie Newman, have their doubts, especially when they find themselves pursued by two different sets of hunters seeking a laser storage disk that Woods had been carrying. The FBI also actively intervenes, and Stick reluctantly joins forces with the G-men after the thugs kidnap Katie and kill Phil. While various hackers try to decipher what's on the disk, a hunch leads Stick to the motive--a serious threat to Florida and the space program--and to a wild race against time. Robinson, himself paralyzed as the result of an accident, creates an upbeat, confident and very likable amateur sleuth who becomes a hero while realistically working around his disabilities. (June)