The Green-Eyed Hurricane

Casper ""Cass"" Perinovich, a stubborn and irascible Biloxi, Miss., shrimper, has seriously annoyed the local powers-that-be with his environmental activism in this carefully wrought yet rousing story enhanced by a rich and pungent Gulf Coast atmosphere. A fishing trip with his old friend, PI Jack Delmas, proves to be Cass's last. After the two men part, Cass walks in the door of his Point Cadet home and turns on the light; the place explodes, killing him instantly. Who would want to kill Cass? Just about everyone. He'd been unwilling to sell his enormously valuable shorefront property to casino developers. He had a personal vendetta against the corrupt Biloxi mayor. He had enraged equally his redneck neighbors and the Gulf Coast Vietnamese shrimpers. Cass's niece, Sheila, who inherits his property, hires Jack to investigate his death, though her own innocence soon comes into question. By sheer gall and relentless prying into the roiling local scene, Jack (in his second appearance after Big Easy Backroad) manages to infuriate just about everyone and put himself in serious danger. At times the author, who's the senior attorney for the office of Mississippi's Secretary of State, doesn't provide sufficient motivation. Why don't characters go to the police? Why are they continually foolhardy? And a few too many red herrings muddy the waters. But a kaleidoscope of action fueled by lusty women, beer-swilling rednecks and snarling Vietnamese thugs makes any such flaws seem minor. (July)