From Publishers Weekly
A weary and reclusive news photographer turned PI must delve into a quarter-century-old death for answers to a recent murder in this atmospheric mystery set on Florida's Gulf Coast. A dotty old woman is shot to death in a motel just as she is asking Tony Lowell to investigate the 1966 drowning of playboy heir Henry Hartley III. All he knows is that she was institutionalized after witnessing the death, which was ruled accidental. A visit from two FBI agents and hints of political scandal goad Lowell to stay on the case, which has been assigned to conservative detective sergeant Lena Bedrosian of the Manatee City Police Department. Lowell returns to the Hartley home in Palm Coast Harbor, an enclave of the wealthy where Lowell himself grew up as son of the local police chief. His probing leads to another murder, and he and Bedrosian must flee or become the next victims. Ayres's protagonist, a burnt-out survivor of the '60s and '70s, of Vietnam and Watergate, is a properly alienated PI. His foil (but not his romantic interest), the defensive and determined Bedrosian, may be a little overdone, but nevertheless the two work together to a satisfying conclusion to this tale, which won the 1992 St. Martin's/Private Eye Writers of America Best First PI Novel contest.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Tony Lowell is a former UPI photographer who took early retirement to Florida, where he spends his time kicking back, fixing boats, teaching photography, listening to 1960s music, and occasionally doing freelance detecting if the price is right. Then he gets a call from another retiree, Maureen Fitzgerald, who swears she's got the inside, eyewitness scoop on the death, years before, of one Henry Hartley, a filthy rich playboy. Fitzgerald claims it was murder and says she was "taken away" so she couldn't identify the killer. Before Lowell can question her further, she's shot to death, leaving our hero to avenge her murder by ferreting out the true story behind Hartley's death. Ayres writes entertainingly about the idle rich and the sleazy methods they use in the race for power, money, and fame. There are no surprises here--we've read it all in the tabloids--but Lowell is an appealing renegade who enjoys bucking the system, and there's always a vicarious thrill in watching the rich get caught.
Emily Melton
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