Loose Coins

When he hit the bottle, Memphis lawyer Al Sears lost his wife, his practice and his beloved coin collection. Now he's sober, doing a little private investigating and helping out his good pal Ralph in his coin shop. When Al and Ralph become a hit man's apparent target, Al is forced to dig into the dregs of his past to find out who wants him dead and why. Al takes a cavalier approach to his many woes and to the assorted people in his life: Judy, his icy ex-wife; Harlan, his friend, fellow coin collector and a surprisingly wealthy and powerful ex-cop; and Sue, Al's reticent new love. Near the end of the novel, when Al gets clobbered with a shovel, is force-fed a bottle of booze and wakes up drunk on a narrow ledge, readers will agree that this guy has had ""cat's lives."" Al's an absorbing lead, but there's a paucity of character development here, and co-authors Hensley (Robak's Witch) and Townsend don't do a whole lot with their Memphis setting either. Even so, they exhibit a lean narrative style that's appealing for its lack of pretension. (Nov.)