I Don’t Like Where This Is Going

Dufresne’s droll second novel featuring Wylie “Coyote” Melville (after 2013’s No Regrets, Coyote) finds the psychological therapist and amateur detective in Las Vegas, Nev., where he has traveled with his friend and sometime crime-solving partner, Bay Lettique, a professional poker player and magician, to escape mobsters in their native south Florida. Melville and Lettique are enjoying cocktails one afternoon in the atrium of the Luxor Hotel when medical researcher Layla Davis falls to her death in front of them. After the local authorities cover up her death, Melville discovers that Davis came from Memphis to rescue her sister, who has descended into prostitution and drug addiction. In his quest for answers, Melville runs up against an assortment of gangsters, lowlifes, and nutcases seemingly indigenous to Vegas. Dufresne’s mix of hard-boiled action and a great deal of bleak humor makes for a potent and compelling brew. [em]Agent: Richard P. McDonough, Richard P. McDonough Literary Agency. (Apr.) [/em]