The idea of the repo man as crime solver has been popular since Joe Gores's San Francisco series; Bill Eidson is a recent convert. Now Gischler, who earned an Edgar nomination for his debut, Gun Monkeys
(2003), gets in on the act with his third novel, which features a down-at-the-heels repo man, Conner Samson, who's hired to take back a sloop, the Electric Jenny
, from its defaulting owner, Teddy Folger. Folger has burned down his comic book and baseball card store in Pensacola, Fla., for the insurance, and now plans to sail away from his old life—and wife—on the craft. But what Conner soon discovers is that an almost priceless treasure, a baseball card signed in 1954 by both Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, is hidden on the Jenny
—and that a Japanese collector with a team of deadly ninjas will kill anyone who gets in the way of his acquiring it. Gischler is a light and clever satirist who knows how to keep a narrative moving, and Conner, who has connections to the Southern art world and a foxy married ladyfriend named Tyranny Jones, is a character well worth another visit. Agent, Noah Lukeman at Lukeman Literary Management. (Apr. 5)
