by Tom Coffey
There's a sly joke at the heart of Coffey's new crime thriller. The hero, Garrett Doherty, is not a private investigator but its spiritual opposite: a public relations executive.
In the hands of Carl Hiaasen—who inevitably leaps to mind when mystery and Miami meet—this would be just the quirk to kick-start a rollicking read. But Coffey is not interested in drollery. Instead he has written a traditional noir and, unfortunately, a ploddingly generic one. Doherty is an ordinary guy whose contact with a client sucks him into an underworld where nothing is what it seems, unless, of course, you've read this kind of book before. There are the cold-blooded smuggler, the exotic femme fatale and ominous warnings to "stop meddling in matters that do not concern you." Readers would be well advised to follow this advice better than Doherty does. (Pocket, $23.95)
Bottom Line: Dim noir
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