Leon’s Legacy

Established fans will best appreciate this uneven prequel to Waiwaiole’s three-book series featuring poker player and part-time detective Wiley and his pal Leon (after 2005’s Wiley’s Refrain), which focuses on how the duo met and forged their enduring friendship. The book opens 25 years before the main action in St. Louis, Mo., where Leon, a high school student, gets into trouble because he leaves two baseball bat–wielding assailants with broken legs. Leon heads straight for his uncle’s house in Portland, Ore., where he plans on laying low for a while, fearful that the two guys he hurt in St. Louis will eventually catch up with him. One benefit of his moving to Portland is meeting Wiley in school. Flash forward to the present: Vincent Kohl, a struggling reporter for the Oregonian, is busy interviewing members of a Portland high school basketball team that won the state championship at a time of intense crack cocaine trafficking in the team’s neighborhood. The ending may leave some readers feeling as if they’ve just read a shaggy dog story. [em](Feb.) [/em]