Gumbo Limbo

The sharpest nose in the mystery business must belong to Corcoran: on almost every page of his smart second book featuring Key West crime scene photographer Alex Rutledge (after 1998's The Mango Opera), there's an olfactory image--from the rot in Alex's yard to the smell of a woman in his bed. All the other senses are addressed vigorously, too, as Rutledge offers a street-by-street tour of the lively town at the end of America, with a side trip to the seedier parts of New Orleans. Corcoran is so slick he can suck in the reader with the corniest of plot clich s: an urgent phone call from an old Navy buddy who then disappears, leaving behind a trail of dead bodies. Was financial wizard Zack Cahill kidnapped from his barstool at Sloppy Joe's because he knew about the huge payoff of a long-ago drug deal? Or is Cahill himself part of the scam? Why is Zack's ex-mistress in Key West, and who wants her dead? What part does the tantalizing police officer Teresa Barga play in the drama? And will Alex's friendly foe, Key West's cop Chicken Neck Liska, succeed in his run for sheriff? Corcoran lubricates his tangled plot with lashings of rum and beer and keeps it moving across a shrewdly observed landscape that reeks with authenticity. The gumbo is spicy, the limbo swift in this hot pepper of a novel. Author tour. (Sept.)