BLUE CHIPPER

Hours after Jackson Coleman is arrested for murder—a drug deal went sour, and no-good Jackson admits he pulled the trigger—his brother William, a high-school basketball phenom in the Florida panhandle, has a visitor offering to swap a plea bargain for Jackson for a letter of intent that William will play for the state university. Convinced that the family's been set up by unscrupulous sports recruiters, William's mother goes to maverick lawyer Nat Semmes, who turns the investigation over to ex-con/detective Morgan Hunt (Sweetwater Ranch, 1991). Hunt, who probably has pictures of Travis McGee on his dresser, finds pretty much what you'd expect—crooked cops, rotten recruiters, killer bikers, and some sweet-tasting quail and catfish—but the finding is a heartfelt pleasure: he feels fine and you will too.