AN HOUR TO KILL

Passing through Miami after completing a hit, assassin-for- hire Mal (a.k.a Harry Pace, Philip Oom, etc.) sees beautiful Marita Garcia being roughed up by Felipe Diaz, younger brother of south Florida drug kingpin Ramon, and in an inexplicable—for him—moment of chivalry, Mal kills the creep. Now he's got big trouble: Miami cops Vogelsang and Shanley are after him; the feds also want him; and Ramon has ordered a nationwide manhunt. To smoke him out, the good guys charge Marita with murder, figuring she must have been his accomplice, and the bad guy not only offers major money for news of his whereabouts but makes deals with other gang leaders to double-cross him. The bodies pile up as Mal, still strangely chivalrous, tries to get Marita off the hook and hopscotches from L.A. to Vegas to Manhattan, finally winding up in Key Biscayne for a confrontation aboard Ramon's yacht. Rendered with pulp-fiction zest and lots of black-and-blue action sequences. Still, Wellen's hardcover debut (after the paperback Hijack, 1971) does have you rooting for his antihero—and his escape into the bay does have you wondering whether he'll pop up again.