Night of the Panther - Hardcover

Ayres, E. C.

3.29

14 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312156073 ISBN 13: 9780312156077

Publisher: St Martins Press, 1997

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When her friend and professional rival Tony Lowell steps in to help Police Detective Lena Bedrosian solve the murder of a Fresh Water Fish and Game officer in Florida, the two soon discover that Lena has become the next person on the hit list.

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From the Back Cover:

From Booklist: Sometime private eye Tony Lowell is ready to take his finally refurbished wooden schooner on its maiden voyage. Then his friend Lena Bedrosian calls. Lena's cousin, conservation officer Marge Pappas, has just been found dead, her bullet-riddled body floating in Corkscrew Swamp. Tony agrees to investigate, and soon he's managed to stir up a hornet's nest of poachers, local militia, corrupt sheriff's deputies, powerful businessmen, and even a state senator. The steamy, alligator-ridden Florida swamp is the perfect setting for Ayres' menacing, suspense-filled mystery. The characters--mostly corrupt, tobacco-chewing good ol' boys driving pickup trucks with rifle racks--are almost too perfectly stereotypical, but Ayres knows how to make them leap off the page. There's also no denying that his style and tone are as close to that of the beloved John D. MacDonald as anyone writing today. A fine mystery. Emily Melton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews:

The conventional picture of Florida's theme parks, lush condos, and early-bird dinners gets short shrift here as Ayres homes in on southern Florida's alligator-infested Big Cypress Swamp, bordered by hunting preserves, protected state lands, and miles of citrus groves. It's here that p.i./photographer Tony Lowell (Eye of the Gator, 1995, etc.) has arrived, asked by Collier County Police Lt. Lena Bedrosian to investigate the death of her cousin Marge Pappas, a Fish and Game officer, shot to death near her camp in the swamp, the killing labeled a hunting accident. What Tony finds is obstruction at every turn: an obvious cover-up by surly policemen Kohler and Vega; a nastily licentious bar owner- -Duvall Patterson, with a put-upon wife and a usually drunken son Billy whom Tony befriends; a home-grown militia of anti-everything louts; and the trophy-obsessed members of the Caloosahatchee Hunt and Gun Club, in cahoots with State Representative Bob Hathcock to engineer a land steal that will mostly benefit millionaire landowner Quentin Lejeune. Making his way from one dangerous encounter to another, with Lena's life on the line as the end draws near, Tony finally gets to the very ugly truth and an almost incidental killer. A heavily detailed look at roads less traveled, a scary take on the lunatic fringe, some quirky characters, and an unflappable detective--all make the third in this series the liveliest and most readable of Lowell's adventures yet. -- Copyright �1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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