Synopsis
Leo Waterman was born and bred in Seattle, Washington, and his father had contacts that ranged from the highest offices to the lowest dives. Those contacts are useful in Leo's pursuit of a profession as a private investigator.
Of course, as a not-completely-rehabilitated hippie, Leo does go about things his own way. His best legmen (and women) are folks he knows from the kinds of bars the tourist board doesn't acknowledge, and they live wherever they can - including the streets. It makes sense: They're virtually invisible.
With all that going for him, it's no wonder that Waterman receives the kind of call he can't refuse from aging mobster Tim Flood. Tim's granddaughter, Caroline, is involved in something and she won't talk about it. Beautiful, willful, and her grandfather's kin, she's been able to get around anyone he's sent after her.
So, Leo gets his marching orders: Bring Caroline home. Safe.
Unfortunately, the crowd she's running with has its own agenda ... and Caroline really does want to do something about the environment....
Reviews
The plot of this sweaty adventure, Ford's fine first effort, is mostly a vehicle for its hero, a wisecracking PI who may be living in the suave Seattle of the 1990s but whose spirit harks back to the 1930s and '40s when men were men, women were dames and coffee was joe. Leo Waterman is hired by mobster Tim Flood to look after his granddaughter, who has fallen in with an extremist environmental group that's on a collision course with the law. When Waterman, whose mission is to keep the sultry Caroline out of harm's way, inadvertently witnesses the apparent murder of one of her pals, he becomes the main suspect. In an improbable but appealing twist, he calls upon his band of street people, met during his hard-drinking days, to carry out surveillance while he lies low. Finely shaded characterization is not Ford's strength, particularly in his portrayals of women, but in general his descriptions are apt and funny. The big finish strains credibility but will satisfy whose who like good to triumph loudly over evil.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Aspects of this clever, funny mystery, such as the joke in its title and the wonderfully specific Puget Sound scenes, will be most appreciated by Northwest readers. Everyone will like the story's protagonist, however. Leo Waterman is the kind of private investigator who trips into tin walls when he's trying to sneak up on the bad guys and loses the ensuing fistfight but is never at a loss for a wisecrack. He's persistent, too, especially when a case turns personal. At first, he's not enthusiastic about retrieving the granddaughter of an aging mobster from her association with a decidedly fanatical environmental group in Seattle. When one of the down-and-outs he employs on a stakeout is grotesquely murdered, though, Waterman is determined to track down the killers. Ford doesn't stint on suspense despite his bent for humor, and readers will likely chase this tale to its surprising conclusion as avidly as Waterman. Dennis Dodge
First novelist Ford peoples his little world with an unrepresentative bunch of drunks, punks, and flower-child throwbacks. Veteran private eye Leo Waterman uses the "services" of four alcoholics in staking out an aging gangster's wayward daughter, while Leo himself follows her elusive boyfriend. Leo knows he's on to something bad, though, when someone torches the guy's shack, wires Leo's car, and tortures one of the drunks. A tightly constructed plot, realistic Seattle surroundings, and effortless prose complement an unorthodox protagonist. Recommended.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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