La Jolla Spindrift

Tommy Donahoo takes less than two pages to go to bed with a young libidinous beauty named Travata who meets him at a bar, but from there things deteriorate fast. His fourth adventure (after Juarez Justice, 1996) pits Tommy, a San Diego detective sergeant, against Travata's wealthy influential father, his own boss and a hit man for the mob who shoots a Jehovah's Witness as Tommy watches. The FBI is furious because Tommy and the late Jehovah's Witness ruined a stakeout at the mobster's mansion. When Tommy goes looking for a suspect in another case, he turns up a man killed by Tommy's recently stolen gun. Taking Travata to the crime scene, Tommy digs $1 million out of the mattress. His car is blown up; more murders ensue. It's enough to make him consider joining the witness protection program and vanishing into Cairo, Ill., but even that looks like a trap. Trolley's gonzo cops keep the goofy plot twisting at a furious pace. One detective collects his partners' food scraps for compost. When he deems it necessary, Tommy is not above cuffing a Fed to a railroad track. This nonstop, madcap storytelling delivers great escape reading. (June)