Former San Francisco homicide detective Sam McGowan sees his plans for a peaceful early retirement go out the window around the same time as his despicable landlord, setting in motion the Rube Goldberg works of this wacky stand-alone from Maleeny, author of 2007's Stealing the Dragon
and two other Cape Weathers investigations. Guilted into unofficial sleuthing by his ex-partner, who's the cop probing the fatal plunge, Sam quickly discovers no dearth of suspects among his quirky neighbors on the 20th floor—and a hotbed of criminal activity. Between the slacker brothers whose sandwich business serves as a distribution network for a Mexican drug lord, the two glamazons putting themselves through school with X-rated activities, a mysterious torch singer and the B-movie director who may be a blackmailer, we're firmly on darkly comic terra Hiaasen. Fast-paced and funny, this is a perfectly blended cocktail of escapism, with or without the beach towel. (June)
