Rock Bottom

The murder of a watchman at Plimoth Plantation, the Pilgrim village replica near Boston, brings fisherman-diver Aristotle Plato Socarides (Cool Blue Tomb; Feeding Frenzy; etc.) back into the detective business. His Vietnam buddy, John Flagg, hires Soc to prove the innocence of accused Joe Quint, a Narraganset Indian lawyer and noisy advocate of Native American causes. With the murder hatchet found in his car, which was seen near the Plantation on the night of the killing, the quarrelsome Quint looks anything but innocent. Soc learns that Quint's trouble began soon after he discovered exploitation of Indian artifacts uncovered on Cape Cod. Meanwhile, factions within tribes battle--often violently--over control of future Indian casino rights. Soc himself becomes a target when he spots the connections. Two first-rate sequences capture the danger of diving in strange waters, and Kemprecos, a former journalist on the Cape, knows his territory well enough to disclose the ethnic character and workaday life that most tourists miss. (June)