Deal on Ice

Miami contractor John Deal hopes to reconcile with his wife, Janice, after her nervous breakdown. But it's slow going. In this fourth and best installment in a first-rate thriller series (Deal to Die For, etc.), Standiford litters the road back to serenity with dead bodies. Janice's boss, Arch Dolan, owner of a successful independent bookstore in Coral Gables, Fla., is killed in an apparent after-hours robbery. Then, in quick succession, the CEO of a huge bookstore chain and a local lawyer-fixer (and his doxy) meet spectacularly violent deaths. Deal starts finding links, including Dolan's sister Sara; the Nebraska-based Worldwide Church of Light, led by televangelist-mogul James Ray Willis--and the Kittles, cuddly 60-somethings who seem to have walked right off a Norman Rockwell magazine cover but who are stone-hearted killers. Deal and poor, rattled Janice are on the move and in constant danger, from south Florida to a blood- and snow-covered climax in Nebraska. The main villain's attempt to control worldwide communications is a bit goofy, but readers won't care because Standiford serves up crackerjack action and memorable characters like the killer Kittles, she in her Minnie Pearl hats, he in polyester, fitting in everywhere--lethally. $30,000 ad/promo; author tour; U.K., translation, first serial, dramatic rights: Sobel Weber. (Feb.)