The Dollar-a-Year Detective: A Jack Starkey Mystery

In Wells’s amiable sequel to 2016’s Detective Fiction, Cubby Cullen, the police chief of Fort Myers Beach, Fla., needs a favor from his friend Jack Starkey, a retired Chicago cop who now lives on a houseboat and owns a bar called the Drunken Parrot. Cullen, who has no staff with Starkey’s homicide experience, wants his professional advice on a high-profile murder case. Lawrence Henderson, the president of Manatee National Bank, and his wife have been shot dead execution-style aboard their sloop. Starkey agrees to help out for $1 a year, money not being an issue. When Russell Tolliver, a car dealer who serves as a state legislator, is executed like the Hendersons with a .22 hollow-point, Starkey takes on that case as well. He soon finds a commonality among the victims—opposition to an offshore drilling bill—and that leads him into troubled political waters. Meanwhile, the persistent Starkey finds time to investigate unexplained casino losses for a friend. John D. MacDonald fans will enjoy spending time with Starkey, though the mystery itself is nothing remarkable. (Aug.)