Mazatlan: A Jack Novak Thriller

Watergate operative Hunt, who as P. S. Donoghue has written Evil Time and other thrillers, uses his own name as author of this adventure but endeavors to signal Donoghue fans by listing that name, too, on the front cover. Here Hunt/Donoghue introduces oh-so-cool tough guy, ex-DEA agent Jack Novak, a ship's chandler in Cozumel. As a favor to Melody, his wealthy college-student lover from South Miami, Novak agrees to search for the missing father of her friend, Tara Vaill; Billy Joe Vaill, televangelist and con man, disappeared during a Central American tour. Most of the action takes place in and around Mazatlan, Mexico, and involves--surprise!--drugs, gun-running and corruption. In between improbable heroics, Novak drinks a lot of fancy rum and makes oblique references to previous adventures, a device likely to confuse readers, since this is his first appearance. While no woman on these pages is less than stunningly attractive and/or sexually intriguing, Novak is the kind of fellow who can say to an embarrassed Tara, whose ``breasts swung charmingly free'' of her torn shirt, ```No time for false modesty--I've seen breasts before.''' Even those who enjoy this cartoon tale aren't likely to take it seriously. (Dec.)