cover image The Albuquerque Turkey

The Albuquerque Turkey

John Vorhaus, Crown, $23 (272p) ISBN 978-0-307-71780-1

At the start of Vorhaus's entertaining sequel to The California Roll, grifter Radar Hoverlander, who's been trying to fly beneath the radar and turn over a new leaf in Santa Fe, N.Mex., intervenes in a domestic dispute he overhears on the street, using a clever ruse to stop an armed, drugged-out man from harming his wife and young daughter. The posting of these heroics on YouTube brings back into Radar's life his estranged con man father, Woody, who walked out on the family when Radar was eight. Interested in more than just repairing strained family ties, Woody needs his son's help, having taken $23,000 from a Las Vegas casino boss in exchange for steering a nonexistent wealthy Saudi prince to that boss's operation. Though skeptical of Woody's tale of woe, Radar enlists a quirky local artist to try to bail out his father. Vorhaus keeps things moving briskly, and Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen fans should be pleased. (Apr.)