Crash Course: A Truman Kicklighter Mystery Book

Retiree extraordinaire Truman Kicklighter returns in the second installment of a simmering Florida series by one of today's hottest suspense writers. When Truman's twenty-something pal is taken for a ride by a used-car dealer, he has to put the brakes on a scam with a deadly payoff.

Truman's young friend Jackleen Canaday has bought herself the car of her dreams, a hot red '88 Corvette with cool leather upholstery, but he ink's hardly dry on the contract when she realizes she's got a nightmare on her hands. The 'Vette reeks of lemon, and Jeff Cantrell, the suave huckster who sold her the car, refuses oh-so-politely to take it back. Much as Jackie loathes Cantrell, she's shocked when she goes by the lot one evening and finds something that looks an awful lot like his corpse. She's even more shocked when the cops arrive a few minutes later and there's no body to be found.

Enter Truman, who hates to see a friend cheated and hates even more to pass up a juicy puzzle. Cantrell's employer, the surpassingly oily Ronnie Boundurant, insists that Cantrell quit abruptlysomething about a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunitybut Truman's acquaintances on both sides of the law suggest that Cantrell and his boss have been seen in the company of a local drug lord. Truman goes undercover and gets a ringside seat at the scene of several crimes, from insurance fraud to usury tohe's increasingly convincedmurder. He unearths a bloody trail that leads from the dealership to Tampa's stripclup strip, and quite possibly to his own demise.

As Truman follows his twisting path to justice, he treats us to refreshingly wry glimpses of retirementa realm of adventurous penny-pinching and enforced leisure. Crash Course also throws a brilliant light on the cheesy, sun-drenched glories of Central Florida and offers up a motley cast of splendidly drawn characters: big-time drug dealers, small-time scam artists, and the crowd that gathers daily with Truman for the blue-plate special at the Fountain of Youth Hotel. Most appealing of all is Truman himself, a curmudgeon's curmudgeon, who's old enough to know better but still good enough to care.