Time to Check Out: A Stan Kraychik Mystery

The fifth comic Stan Kraychik mystery (after Mask for a Diva, 1994) finds the gay hairdresser in Key West after the death of his lover, Rafik, in a misadventure with a UPS truck in Paris. Supplied with insurance money and a $3 million settlement from UPS, Kraychik is rolling in dough. Ordered out of his accommodations barely 24 hours after his arrival there, he finds his homophobic landlady, Augusta Willits, dead with an alarm clock stuffed into her mouth--and a painting missing from the lobby. Since the old woman was contesting the will of her son, Peter, who promised his property to his friends just before he died of AIDS, there are a lot of people on the island who think her death is their ticket to their dreams: a gallery for a painter; a new career for a lounge singer; a travel agency for an unhappily married woman; and a theater for a ""soap star manque"" and a famous writer hungry for Hollywood. Invited to report back to the local cops daily, Kraychik blithely probes the nightlife of Key West, becoming a special friend of a gay hustler, Ross; attending a private orgy; dodging a pink cab that's stalking him; and going head-to-head with a lawyer named Nancy L. Drew, who hangs out with Adolf Dobermann, a German businessman. After reversals in his life every bit as startling as those in his amateur murder investigation, Kraychik tracks his suspect to a hurricane-tossed tourist boat and finally sorts out the details of a breezy whodunit. (Aug.)