John Deal has once again naively blundered into a mess, but instead of doing it in his old stomping grounds of Miami, he is trouble in Key West. “Deal, who’d inherited what was left of DealCo Construction from his late father, had come down from Miami to Key West to see a man about a job, as it were.” The meeting with the very rich developer Franklin Stone keeps getting postponed and as the novel opens, Deal is having a drink with Russell, his new friend as well as newly promoted construction superintendent.

Russell goes off for a few minutes and one of the local hustlers approaches Deal. Dequarius Moyes seems to want a job and Deal tries to brush him off. Dequarius insists that he needs to talk to him before being thrown out by the bartender. Deal quickly forgets all about him when the lounge singer appears. The beautiful woman is his old flame Annie, from a time long before Janice his current wife from whom he is separated.

The next day, Deal and Russell see Dequarius being beat on by a local police officer. Without a handy videotape camera, they intervene and physically stop the officer from beating the defenseless Dequarius. Both are thrown in jail and almost as quickly released because of the intervention of Franklin Stone. Stone also manages to get Dequarius released. Before long, Dequarius is brutally murdered and Deal seems to have involved himself in something that he does not understand. The Police are unhelpful, to say the least, and the mysterious Stone seems to be pulling unseen strings beyond his land development plans and using his influence to manipulate everyone to an end only he can foresee.

This book is a significant improvement over the last novel and is a refreshing return to what made this author interesting to read. The writing is tight with plenty of action and intriguing characters. And once again, just when the reader thinks he knows all there is to the John Deal character, the author manages to add a new nuance to him. This is a fast paced mystery and a story that while it is very complex, moves along at a strong pace. It is nice to see Les Standiford back on his game and this recent effort makes him a pleasure to read again.

Book Facts:


Bone Key: A John Deal Novel
By Les Standiford
2002 Release
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
ISBN # 0-399-14874-4
Hardback




Personal note: Yes, I can and have written longer but for this write off, it must be 666 words or less. This is another entry in Sleeper54’s challenge at: http://www.epinions.com/content_3600982148








Recommended: Yes