Bitter Legacy: A Matt Royal Mystery

A one-dimensional protagonist and frequent plot contrivances sink Griffin's so-so fifth mystery thriller featuring retired lawyer Matt Royal (after 2009's Wyatt's Revenge). When a sniper shoots Royal's closest friend, Logan Hamilton, in broad daylight on a Sarasota, Fla., street, Logan luckily survives what should have been a fatal chest wound. In order to make the would-be assassin believe that he succeeded, Longboat Key police chief Bill Lester arranges for Hamilton to be transported to the morgue. The plot thickens when Jason Blakemoore, an ex-jock turned mediocre attorney, is gunned down. Soon, Royal himself becomes a target. After barely surviving multiple attacks, Royal begins to suspect that he and his friends "were being stalked by true evil." A plot thread dealing with the history of the Black Seminoles amounts to a failed effort to make the violence have some greater significance. (Dec.)