Dream Boat

Part of the growing Good Ol' Boy subgenre in crime fiction is the second appearance of Jack Flippo, the lawyer's investigator introduced in Big Town. In Baggett County, East Texas, a partner in a sleazy Dallas bar drowns in a ``boating accident,'' leaving the other owner, erstwhile songwriter and tough guy Rex Echols, the happy beneficiary of a $500,000 insurance policy. Sent to check into things before the money is paid out, Jack finds a mean-eyed sheriff and assorted other local officials who are inclined neither to look into the affair nor to welcome Jack's presence. Jack's efforts to track down the one witness who might shed some light on the drowning leads to an alliance with Sally Danvers, a bartender at Echols's bar, who, of course, is nothing like the airhead bimbos who flounce through the rest of the narrative. Jack must also deal with his ex-wife's beau, who, angry at Jack's lopping off his ponytail in a barroom dispute, has placed him under filmed surveillance. None of this is very believable, and the characters are mainly walking cliches. Even Jack, waxing witty and ironic in nearly all circumstances, eventually begins to pall. World rights: Witherspoon & Associates. (Feb.)