From Amazon.com
A new Deal novel is cause for celebration, as fans of Les Standiford's series featuring the Florida contractor know. This time around, Deal's complicated family ties lure him from Miami to Key West to bid on a huge project being developed by entrepreneur Franklin Stone, an old friend of his father's. It's always a good idea to get a series hero away from his usual haunts, even if the Keys aren't that far from Florida's gold coast; the geography of the setting is key to this somewhat run-of-the-mill tale of buried treasure, vintage wine, and murder. What makes this mystery worthwhile isn't the plot, it's the people; instead of Vernon Driscoll, Deal's usual sidekick, Standiford gives us Russell Straight, and instead of Janice, Deal's estranged wife, the author sets up Annie Dodds, Deal's college girlfriend, as his love interest; it's the author's skill at characterization that renders them real rather than stereotypical, multifaceted rather than one-dimensional. Not the best of the series, but still well worth reading.
--Jane Adams
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Among mystery buffs, John D. MacDonald may be the poet laureate of South Florida, but now Standiford whose work has been praised by Elmore Leonard and Stephen King, among others bids fair to be MacDonald's heir apparent. (Travis McGee fans will note John Deal's resemblance to MacDonald's "salvage consultant," and Standiford, like MacDonald, excels at depicting violence.) The novel takes its cue from John Hersey's hymn to Key West ("Many of the citizens are well acquainted with mischief, but at a cost"). The story begins in 1931 with a storm passing through the Florida straits; there's a devastating explosion aboard a freighter, The Magdalena, and then oblivion. Many years later, John Deal, who inherited the Dealco Construction firm from his late father, is visiting Key West to discuss a building project. He steps in to help a black youth, Dequarius Noyes, from being harassed by a deputy. Soon afterward, Noyes turns up in Deal's hotel room dead. In the kid's hand is the label from a bottle of rare wine, vintage 1929, worth thousands of dollars. There's more, much more, including buried treasure, an old girlfriend who reappears out of nowhere and, of course, murder. The labyrinthine plot, involving a case of rare wine worth $100,000, will delight oenophiles. Thriller buffs in general and readers of South Florida mysteries in particular should find this one well up to Standiford's standard.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
