Loser Deals

Aging man-about-Malaga Robert Masters, a onetime minor Hollywood actor slightly down on his luck, is caught up in a series of misadventures in this offbeat and entertaining new novel, beginning when his unscrupulous Spanish son-in-law opens a detective agency and drafts him into unwilling service. When he's not having flashback memories of his amorous past, Masters finds himself in the middle of the nasty divorce of a sexually adventurous British nobleman from his alluring young wife. When, innocently, Masters is compromised by the vengeful wife, his longtime mistress exits in a jealous huff for a sabbatical in Marrakech--a departure followed soon enough by the departure of Masters's daughter from her husband. But when a former Hollywood friend shows up with a yacht-load of jet-setters, Masters reunites with an old flame; later, he enjoys a poignant interlude with a beautiful, if slightly faded, flamenco dancer before his life finally resumes its settled routine. With its atmospheric setting and lived-in characters, this latest from the author of Dangerous Friends (1992) offers a delightful glimpse of the exotic life abroad. (Feb.)