Last Ditch: A Leo Waterman Mystery (Leo Waterman Mysteries) - Hardcover

Ford, G.M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0380975572 ISBN 13: 9780380975570

Publisher: William Morrow, 1999

Synopsis

In Leo Waterman, writer G.M. Ford has created a private detective who tackles cases armed with strong survival instincts--and a deadly sense of humor. In his fifth outing, Seattle's most uncompromising sleuth finds that the laughs are all on him after making a startling discovery at home.

P.I. Leo Waterman is unflappable, irrepressible and unpredictable--a guy who, when facing adversity, would rather throw a punchline than a punch. As the son of one of Seattle's most colorful political figures, Leo Knows the city like no one else. Barely operating within the bothersome confines of the law, Leo manages to bend the rules via a dash of urbane charm, backed-up by a mild threat of mutual blackmail.

Recently, Leo has put aside the ghosts of his childhood to take up residence in his deceased parents' newly renovated mansion, which he now shares with his girlfriend, forensic specialist Rebecca Duvall. Domestic tranquility is the ideal, but this is Leo Waterman's home--where a simple chore can lead to disaster.

To clean up the neglected backyard, Leo calls upon his most trusted allies, "the Boys," a tenacious collective of hapless barflies whose pension checks arrive care of a low-rent ginmill. but as they tear down a dilapidated greenhouse, the motley wrecking crew uncovers a human skeleton that belongs to Leo's late father's most despised enemey: a muck-raking, ultra-conservative journalist who vanished twenty years ago. With the evidence stacked against "Wild Bill" Waterman, his son feels compelled to clear his name by digging up the past--and trying not to get buried beneath it.

About this title

Review:

G.M. Ford's fifth book about Seattle private detective Leo Waterman begins with a backyard jolt: the Boys (a group of ancient alcoholics who Leo looks after) dig up the 30-year-old remains of a gay-bashing right-wing newspaper columnist named Peerless Price while doing some work on the grounds of the mansion belonging to Leo's late father, politician Wild Bill Waterman.

It looks very much as though Wild Bill did indeed shoot and bury his arch enemy. And precisely because both a starchy relative and the entire Seattle PD warn him against it, Leo proceeds to risk life, limb, and his ancient Fiat convertible to prove his father's innocence. What he finds out--from Wild Bill's old driver, an ex-cop called Bermuda Schwartz, and other assorted ghosts from the past--provides a wild and often touching story that combines recent headlines (about the smuggling of Chinese immigrants) with moments of personal pain. That same combination is present in Ford's other books about Waterman: Slow Burn, Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca?, The Bum's Rush, and Cast in Stone. --Dick Adler

From the Back Cover:

Seattle p.i. Leo Waterman knows the city like no one else. And he knows how to stretch the limits of the law, when necessary, to accomplish what needs to be done -- a very useful talent Leo acquired from his late, larger-than-life father, once one of the region's most powerful and colorful political characters. But just how seriously Waterman senior transgressed during his time on Earth comes into question when one of "the Boys" -- Leo's "residentially challenged" barfly allies -- digs up a human skeleton in Dad's backyard.

The remains that remain belong to "Wild Bill" Waterman's staunchest foe -- an ultra-conservative muckraking journalist who vanished mysteriously thirty years before. Leo has always struggled in his father's shadow -- but he's convinced that his old man was much too savvy to have committed murder -- let alone to have interred the victim in his own backyard. But in order to clear his father's damaged name, the dutiful son is going to have to start digging up a very dangerous past...and do his damnedest not to get buried beneath it.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0380975572
• ISBN 13: 9780380975570
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288