Bad Eye Blues: A Wiley Moss Mystery

Among the growing pack of comic crime writers, Barrett just may be the alpha male. Wiley Moss, that accomplished illustrator of insects seen last in Skinny Annie Blues, is kidnapped and thrust into a westbound bus by a one-eyed Indian named Bobby Bad-Eye and an albino movie freak named Rocco. When they reach an underutilized brothel in the Idaho wilderness, Vinnie ""Spuds"" DeMarco, a low-level mobster who operates the scenic establishment, says, ""I love the way you draw stuff, Wiley Moss."" DeMarco has had Wiley snatched and forces him to draw his Spudettes, resident cuties who frolic nude by the pool and entertain occasional mysterious visitors. One comely Spudette, Laurel, is assigned to comfort Wiley during his forced labor, but he still wants out. An opportunity arises when one of DeMarco's henchmen is shot through a lodge picture window (""It was a hunting accident,"" says Bobby Bad Eye). Another gets his throat cut while shadowing Wiley at the Moose Insemination Center. Tension mounts when DeMarco's boss, arrives. And who's the fat guy with him, a mystery man whose very visage reduces Laurel to quivering, fearful silence? Barrett amazes with funny dialogue, lovably loopy characters, utterly improbable events and oddball locations. It makes a tantalizing little mystery with a double shot of big laughs. (June)