Blue Pearl

Last seen in Storm Surge, South Florida's husband-and-wife PI team, Quin St. James and Mike McCleary, are caught in another deadly vortex of murder, politics, lust and telepathy in this elaborate adventure. While helping the police investigate the murder of a Miami socialite who was married to a popular Chilean faith healer, Mike is critically wounded. Taking up the case while he's in intensive care, Quin calls on old friends for help. One is John Tark, a fellow PI whose desire for Quin complicates their relationship; another is Rita Vail, a judge and confidante of Florida's incumbent woman senator whose seat is being challenged by a wealthy conservative businessman from another old Miami family. Mike, suffering from expressive aphasia, can't tell Quin what he learned about the dead woman, her connection to the senate hopeful and a well-funded research facility probing the powers of psychics and healers. More murders connect the PIs with devious pols and a psychotic. Lots of action, some of it over-arranged, and a diverse cast of three-dimensional characters mark Quin and Mike's latest appearance. (Nov.)