Reviews

An authentic feel of the sea and of life on and around boats raises this debut a cut above the usual murder tale. One-eyed Creole diver and salvage boat operator John Rodrigue sinks an abandoned boat for a wealthy acquaintance, Buck Greathouseostensibly for insurance reasons. When Rodrigue finds himself followed and begins to hear rumors that the vessel was involved in the cocaine trade, he tips off a reporter friend, Mike Ferguson; it appears that well-known political figures may be part of the drug-smuggling ring. Then Ferguson and Sandy Carson, Rodrigue's lover, are murdered, and Rodrigue is held incommunicado by the feds, who are trying to find out how much he knows. When a candidate for governor of Louisiana and a rich Republican developer and newspaper owner are implicated, Rodrigue is released and told the case is closed. Realizing that Ferguson's death and other killings are part of a coverup, Rodrigue takes matters in his own hands, posing as a native fisherman to pursue the killers to the Yucatan and then to Belize. Narrowly escaping death several times, he manages to nail the culprits despite official inaction. Grissom conveys a strong sense of time and place, although occasionally his prose is overblown. ( October )