Storm Surge

Subterfuge mates with hidden identity to beget a complex, solid mystery thriller in MacGregor's ( Spree ) hardcover debut. Here, the murder of an old friend plunges Miami husband-and-wife PI team Mike McCleary and Quin St. James into hellish circles of aliases and shady international dealings. Just before retired criminology professor Charlie Potemkin was shot to death in his apartment, he mailed packets of information to a few friends, including Mike and Quin. The material had been passed along to Charlie by Steve Heckler, a man with shadowy government connections who can no longer be located. Mike gives the photos they received to his former employer, Miami's Metro-Dade PD, and learns that they depict Lawrence Crandall, a developer whose efforts to acquire land occupied by senior housing had been hampered by Charlie. Rumors of irregularities in the Crandall company prompt the police to send Quin undercover as Crandall's new secretary; in this guise, she comes up against John Gabriel Tark, a tracker and hit man who has been sent--by whom is the question--to recover Heckler's incriminating information. As Hurricane Alfred wreaks havoc in south Florida, Mike and Quin follow separate paths to the corker of a conclusion. (Sept.)