TWICE THE TROUBLE

A brash Florida private eye leaps into action in search of a business partner who’s disappeared with $14 million.

Bulldog attorney Faith Carlton protests that she can’t go to trial in her defense of Frank Bisby, the CEO of Selberis Constructors, without deposing Bisby’s partner, Arthur Valkenburg. The judge, impressed that she’s hired ex–University of Florida football star Noland Twice to find Valkenburg, grants her two additional weeks. But Nole doesn’t need nearly that much time to turn up Valkenburg, lose him again, sneak into his apartment searching for clues and discover Bisby shot to death. Calculating that sharing this news with the authorities will spell doom for Selberis, his nominal client, he calls his buddy Kiril, the opponent who ended his football career by breaking his leg in an overenthusiastic tackle. Together they do what they can (don’t ask) to ensure that the body won’t be discovered by anyone else for at least a week while Nole renews his search for the slippery Valkenburg. A fresh complication arises as Nole comes to doubt that Valkenburg was the thief. Could it instead have been his ex-wife, sexy accountant Cassandra Raines, banker Sabine Werther, or one of the other top dogs at Selberis—CEO William Redding, operations chief Shawn Difore, or vice president Karen Voss? For better or worse, one suspect will be eliminated by Nole’s discovery of a second, headless corpse. The mystery, which eventually focuses on the hunt for a pair of books that have been pressed into service to devise an unbreakable code, is routine, but Nole, who’s clearly learned his business and sexual ethics from a close study of hard-boiled fiction, is a keeper.

Will a series follow? Let’s hope so.