Outside Agency

In his second appearance (after Local Knowledge), Kieran Lenahan, formerly a lawyer and now a pro golfer, seems to antagonize just about everyone. He's just won a place on the PGA tour, but he doesn't have time to enjoy it. A blow to the head with a blunt instrument saddles him with retrograde amnesia. Worse, when he wakes up, he's no longer in Orlando, Fla., but in Gainesville, where the police are keenly interested in why he was found in the apartment of Cindy and her corpse. Kieran doesn't have a clue, but he's allowed, though still under suspicion by the surly local police, to return to the tour to compete. After a series of intense interviews with colorful local eyewitnesses, he pieces together what transpired and quickly discovers that the shrewd and stunning Cindy was a world-class con-artist who presented serious threats to members of the tour. By defending some players against gaming charges and by threatening to reveal drug use, Kieran, now a pariah, had seriously provoked both management and players. Indeed, someone is out to get him. Readers indifferent to golf may find that too many details about technique and equipment slow the book down to the pace of the game itself. And a deus ex machina finale is truly a disappointment even if it does give the book its title. Daly, however, bestows on Kieran wry wit and puts a maliciously humorous spin on the seamier side of professional golf: organized gambling; drug violations; and, of course, corporate greed. (May)