Detective Fiction

Retired Chicago homicide detective Jack Starkey, the narrator of this delightfully quirky crime novel from Wells (Ride Away Home), is the model for Jack Stoney, the hero of a series of mystery novels by a Chicago police reporter, Bill Stevens. Starkey, having relocated to Fort Myers Beach, Fla., finds retirement boring and takes an undercover assignment for the local police. The town is dominated by a variety of rich and ultrarich seniors, and they have begun dying off under questionable circumstances. Starkey’s adventures among the Fort Myers horsey set, a cynical blue-collar guy having to pass as a blue blood, are alternately—or sometimes simultaneously—pointed and hilarious. The book is crammed with fascinating asides on topics ranging from haute cuisine to high-tech weaponry to the sad state of the Chicago Cubs. Beautiful women, expensive automobiles, and fabulous cuisine pop up in scene after scene, sprinkled with alternative moments excerpted from Stevens’s latest Jack Stoney novel. Fans of Carl Hiaasen and John D. MacDonald will find a lot to like. [em](Jan.) [/em]