Free Range Institution (A Mick Murphy Key West Mystery)

When journalist Liam Mick Murphy lies to the chief of police in order to get a story, he uncovers a conspiracy to smuggle a cheap, lethal cocaine based drug through Key West. Before long, local authorities, federal agents and drug cartel hit men are looking for Murphy because of what they think he knows. With help from an eclectic group of friends, including an old black ops acquaintance from Central America, Murphy sets out to prove who's behind the smuggling plot and distance himself from the violence that has spawned havoc on the island.This fast paced story twists and turns like a hurricane wind. Readers will enjoy a roller coaster ride through Key West's back streets and bars as only a local can show them.

Haskins's second Mick Murphy Key West mystery (after 2008's Chasin' the Wind) offers more gunfights than developed characters. On their way to a romantic lunch, journalist Murphy and his sometime girlfriend, attorney Tita Toledo, see Murphy's waterfront friend, Jay Bruehl, fall to his death from the roof of six-story Hotel Key West. Bruehl, a snitch, had tipped Murphy off about a big drug deal—and Hotel Key West was the site for a meeting of some Colombian traffickers. When Rebecca Connelly, an undercover cop who infiltrated the traffickers' meeting, goes missing, a Guatemalan priest, Thomas Collins, insists that angels have told him where to find Connelly. After Connelly turns up dead in the exact spot the padre named, both he and Murphy come under official scrutiny. Readers should be prepared for a stock plot with de rigueur corrupt officials and brushes with death. (Feb.)
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Mick Murphy, the newshawk hero of Haskins’ latest Key West mystery, makes a classic reporter goof. He pretends to be a little closer to the action than he really is. Both good and bad guys take him at his word, and the chase is on. At the heart of it all is a plot to bring a particularly cheap and addictive drug called paco into the U.S. As the good guys assemble behind Mick and check their guns, echoes of Miami Vice reverberate, with both its pastel glitz and its underlying despair. The cartels have more money and guns; the best the rest of us can do is hold together. Things get lively as the confrontation approaches, but this really isn’t a high-concept action novel or even a stripped-down thriller. It’s about adult relationships, and its generous use of the Key West setting will appeal to readers who like local color. Since it’s the Keys, a lot of beer and rum goes down, and there’s much eating of cheeseburgers, dolphin sandwiches, and breakfast eggs with hot sauce. --Don Crinklaw