Love for Sale: A Gideon Lowry Mystery

Displaying less lounge lizardry and more sleuthing than in his previous two outings (Killing Me Softly; Night and Day), Key West PI and cocktail pianist Gideon Lowry investigates the purported suicide of a young woman. It seems that half the men in town knew paid escort Katy Morgan intimately. Lowry used her services; so did Brendan Scott, in the salvage business, and Joe Delgado, Scott's right-hand man. Morgan's death comes just when she was poised to turn her life around. She had reconnected with her father and had recently come into possession of a valuable chalice, which several parties showed some interest in buying. After her death, Lowry takes possession of the chalice and a list of her clients. Meanwhile, a reclusive and elderly judge is thinking about getting married. His intended is a little younger, more outgoing, and has a surly son in town. The judge's first wife died in a car crash, and the judge himself is soon involved in a similar accident. His fiancee's first husband was an inventor and treasure hunter. Leslie gives his hero an interesting supporting cast, including three ex-wives and a cop pal who drinks and whores with fervor, and makes much of Lowry's breezy, tourist-infested town. Apart from them, virtually everything and everyone are connected, as Lowry proves in solving the mysteries surrounding Morgan's death. (Jan.)