Hot (Henry Holt Mystery Series) - Hardcover

Lutz, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805015841 ISBN 13: 9780805015843

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1992

Synopsis

Pushing seventy, private eye Fred Carver investigates what might be his last mystery when retired cop Henry Tiller asks him to look into the actions of his neighbor, who has been transporting oddly shaped cargo boxes in his luxury yacht

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

In this latest Fred Carver mystery, Lutz ( Kiss ; Tropical Heat ) sets his aging knight errant from Orlando, Fla., against younger villains on the nowhere fringes of the Florida Keys. Crusty old Henry Tiller--an ex-cop from Milwaukee living on tiny Key Montaigne--suspects that his wealthy retired neighbor, Walter Rainer, is a drug dealer responsible for the death of a 13-year-old runaway. Brushed off by local cops, Tiller hires Carver to investigate. Carver knows more is involved than just an old man's active imagination when Tiller is hit by a car; later, his own car is followed to Key Montaigne and he receives a death threat. After Tiller dies from his injuries, Carver brings in his live-in lover Beth, ex-wife of a drug kingpin and a martial arts expert. Obsessed with nailing Rainer, Carver and Beth ignore warnings to keep constant watch on the Rainer household. While Lutz creates terrific characters in this concise, crisply told escapade, the surveillance of the bad guys drones on, and when the true nature of Rainer's criminal activity is unmasked, the payoff doesn't seem to warrant the buildup. Despite these lapses, Carver remains one of the genre's most credible protagonists.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Here, game-legged Floridian p.i. Fred Carver (Blood Fire, etc.), a former big-city cop, agrees to check out Henry Tiller's neighbor. Henry, a retired cop now living in the Keys, thinks the 300-pound Rainer is up to no good--maybe drug smuggling on his Miss Behavin' when he runs it without lights at night. Henry soon becomes a hit-and-run statistic, and Fred, with the help of his drug-savvy girlfriend Beth (she used to live with a drug kingpin), spy on the Rainer estate from Henry's cottage and the Oceanography Research Center across the way. Several tails and a break-in later, Fred, despite being warned off, begins to understand the connection between Henry's murder, the Oceanography chief's suicide, the disappearance of a supposed welfare couple whose young ``son'' washed ashore, and Rainer's midnight runs to Mexico, resulting in a confrontation with the obese one and his homicidal henchman Davy at the Oceanography shark tank--with biting results. Lutz, the current president of the Mystery Writers of America, represents state-of-the-art private-eye writing: lean, mean, and eminently readable. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0805015841
• ISBN 13: 9780805015843
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 273