Dreamsicle

Machismo takes center stage in this bravado-burdened first novel about a highly addictive new drug. While bow-hunting in Missouri, Wyatt Storme, Vietnam vet and former star receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, stumbles onto a 20-acre field of marijuana. Wyatt has plans to drive back to Colorado with bounty hunter and body guard Chick Easton, but first he reports his find to the sheriff. Before the two can leave, however, the sheriff is murdered, and Wyatt and Chick decide to find out if Wyatt's tip precipitated the killing. They get involved with reporter Jill Maxwell, a local lawyer, a crooked deputy and agents from both the DEA and the FBI, who are planning a big bust based on a tip about the new highly addictive drug, Dreamsicle. After Chick is arrested for the sheriff's murder and then sprung by Wyatt's lawyer, they step up their investigation. Wyatt pines for his true love in Colorado even as he lusts after Jill and a brutally raped and beaten female undercover DEA agent. This talky vigilante tale, which begins with Wyatt's killing an attack dog and alternates comparable displays of strength with naive moralizing from its he-men, seems more the stuff of comic strips than novels. (June)