Spark (A Henry Holt Mystery) - Hardcover

Lutz, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805019936 ISBN 13: 9780805019933

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1993

Synopsis

In John Lutz's seventh mystery of this acclaimed series, disabled Florida P.I. Fred Carver is hired by the redoubtable Hattie Evans to investigate the death of her seventy-year-old husband, Jerome. Although the doctors say he had a heart attack, an anonymous note claiming Jerome was murdered stirs Hattie's doubts about the cause of her husband's death.
The Evanses lived in Solartown, one of the new breed of retirement communities catering to all the needs of its residents: golf course, health center, grocery store, recreation facility - everything but a morgue. An ideal kind of place; that is, until Carver begins to suspect that the good people of Solartown may be dying just a bit too soon.
Is the community really as benign as it appears on the surface, or does it harbor a very methodical killer? Another death brings Carver and Hattie tragically closer to the secrets hidden within the seemingly serene, pastel-colored walls of Solartown's homes. But a torturous encounter with a sadistic and homicidal addict and a shattering series of events tell Carver that a conspiracy of good intentions and corporate greed may be to blame - and may also be the end of him.

About this title

Reviews

Noir is a fitting descriptive for Edgar-winning Lutz's latest Fred Carver mystery (after Hot ), even though the middle-aged PI with a bum knee plies his trade on the sun-drenched west coast of Florida. After retiree Jerome Evans dies unexpectedly, apparently from a heart attack, his flinty widow, Hattie, receives a note suggesting that her husband was murdered, and hires Carver to investigate. While poking around the total-care retirement village of Solartown, Carver learns that Hattie's next-door neighbor is smitten with her, that the deceased had been fooling around with the widow Crane and that Jerome's coronary was verified by the village's medical center. After finding Maude Crane's body, apparently a suicide, the PI is warned off the case with a vicious beating from a steroid-using, alcoholic sadist named Adam Beed. Wary but undeterred, Carver uncovers connections that link Beed, the medical center and a drug company, grasping the details of their chilling experiment only when he and Hattie are in Beed's nasty clutches. Although the ending is a bit abrupt, the story is highly satisfying, powered mainly by the bleak, consistent outlook of its hero, who observes that if he changed his occupation, "he'd miss the job but not the people."
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805019936
• ISBN 13: 9780805019933
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 243