Sand Dollars (John Caine Mysteries)

Knief, Charles

ISBN 10: 0312181701 / ISBN 13: 9780312181703

Published by St Martins Pr, 1998

Signed. First Edition. Signed by the author. First edition. Seller Inventory # mon0003126960

Synopsis:

After Claire Peters spots her husband, who is supposedly dead, she hires PI John Caine to investigate, and it takes all of his special skills to find out what happened to the man and the money that vanished with him.

Reviews: An excess of macho posturing and unexplained plot moves weaken the effectiveness of this second adventure featuring retired Naval officer John Caine (after Diamond Head, 1996). John leaves Hawaii for California when he is hired by Claire Peters to hunt down her husband, Paul, a software tycoon who has disappeared?perhaps in the company of a missing seven million dollars. Claire is quickly smitten by the rugged John, but John is overcome with chivalry?and by Claire's pal Barbara. Neither elegant nor logical, this story suffers from the author's florid prose (Caine's rear end manages to "pucker" at a suitably tense moment in the narrative). The money trail leads finally to Joe, Paul's sleazebag lawyer, and his partner, the sultry Lorena Garcia, who has lured many a hapless soul into unrequited lust and patently unwise real estate investment. At the close, following a Rambo-esque feat of savage mayhem, John gets a spiffy new boat, but Knief seems unsure if he should also get the girl. Knief show more interest in establishing John as a man's man who knows his way around a boat and the ladies than in sustaining the suspense of a challenging mystery.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

You might think there were enough detectives in California already. But when Claire Peters's husband Paul disappears from their San Diego home with $7 million from the software company he started, she imports John Caine from Pearl Harbor. Neither the cops nor Petersoft's head bean-counter Joseph Stevenson believes Claire's story that she saw Paul on a Mexican beach months after he was supposedly blown up in a boating accident. But Caine's more than happy to surround himself with ex-SWAT members and ordnance and to head south of the border, where it turns out that the disappearance of Paul Peters, with or without his company's kitty, is mainly an excuse for the nonstop fisticuffs familiar from Diamond Head (1996). Nearly everybody, from a pair of casual hotel thieves to the Mexican police, seems to want a piece of Caine, but his lead adversary looks to be deadly spitfire Lorena Garcia, and who knows if Caine will be willing to give her what she deserves? (``I'd never hit a woman before. Shot a few, but never hit one''). His fans will be happy to know that, like Travis McGee, Caine fends off the advances of vulnerable women however beautiful; that he solves the mystery long before he runs out of firepower; and he saves his most tender moments (``exploring her hidden places, running my hand over smooth texture, letting my eyes rove wherever they wished'') for his new boat. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Who says there aren't any real men left? Meet John Caine, retired navy commander and Hawaii-based private eye. Still mourning the death of his lady love a year earlier, Caine takes a case in San Diego as a way to get back in the groove. His client, Claire Peters, whose husband, Paul, and the yacht he was piloting were apparently blown to bits in an accident, now faces further disaster. The company she and her husband founded is missing $7 million. Claire swears she saw her husband recently in Mexico, and she wants Caine to find out if Paul is really dead and what happened to the money. Run-ins with both gang members and the Mexican police stand in his way, but Caine finally finds the truth on a deserted Mexican beach. Full of high-impact action, lustful looks, spirited women, and buckets of blood, Knief's latest may be overly macho, but it offers riveting entertainment to fans of Robert Parker and John D. MacDonald. Emily Melton

Bibliographic Details

Title: Sand Dollars (John Caine Mysteries)
Publisher: St Martins Pr
Publication Date: 1998
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Includes dust jacket.
Signed: Signed by Author(s)
Edition: 1st Edition