The Weatherman's Daughters

A disjointed plot full of absurdities irks more than it entertains in Hoyt's latest John Denson mystery (Whoo?, etc.), which opens with a torrential downpour of live salmon beating Denson and his VW bus to a pulp after he stops at an accident scene alongside an Oregon mountain roadway. A young woman, Sharon Toogood, lies dying of a bullet wound. The daughter of Portland TV weatherman Jerry Toogood, Sharon was carrying Denson's PI firm's card in her wallet. In trying to understand the salmon shower and the deepening mystery surrounding the Toogood family, Denson seeks the aid and counsel of his Native American cohort, Willie Sees the Night. Willie assures Denson that the salmon shower was the spirit world's means of embodying within him the appropriate animal spirit. So, at Denson's insistence, Willie supplies him with a concoction that sends Denson ""flying"" in an out-of-body experience that may help him find some of the answers to this and a second murder. Over-the-top characters include bear poachers, a health-food store owner who wears Dumbo ears and a sci-fi monster face, members of a militant militia group and a double-jointed girlie-club-dancing FBI agent. Smacking strongly of the 1960's cult film Candy, this will appeal to readers for whom humorous incidentals matter more than a plausible story line. (July 9) FYI: Hoyt is also the author of Old Soldiers Sometimes Lie (Forecasts, date Tk, 2002) and other military/political thrillers.