Fast Shuffle

Harry Dickinson, the hero of this choppy, underdeveloped novel from Black (The Extinction Event), goes through life behaving as if he were a 1940s gumshoe. He is also a latter-day Don Quixote, who sees the good and the mystery in everything and everyone, even though he’s actually a present-day car salesman in Springdale, Mass. His girl Friday, Linda Chapin, is hopelessly in love with him, and his best friend, detective Brian Rossiter, overlooks Harry’s less-than-firm grip on reality. Meanwhile, his sister, Carol, and her husband, Phil Lagrange, would love to see him institutionalized so they can control Harry’s finances and the house they all share. When Harry finds bank documents left at a shoe-shine stand and insists they indicate that foul play has befallen a woman he has never met, things start to go Phil’s way. Harry has some charm, but he tends to ramble on in bewildering fashion, while dialogue between minor characters reads more like screenplay notes than anything that moves the plot along. Agent: Mel Berger, William Morris Endeavor. (July)