cover image Dead South

Dead South

Winona Sullivan. St. Martin's Press, $21.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-312-13959-9

Sullivan, a former analyst for the CIA, portrays the organization as exceptionally inept in her second novel after A Sudden Death at the Norfolk Cafe. When agent Bradley Locke, vacationing in Miami, is abducted after too many drinks with a Panamanian national, the CIA hires PI/nun Sister Cecile Buddenbrooks to find their man. Cecile, who as a teenager infiltrated a spy ring for the organization, agrees and borrows the Miami condo of her lawyer, setting up a facade with 70-something Sister Raphael as representatives of their order in search of retirement property. The lawyer, who's in love with Cecile, gives her a shiny new Ferrari Testarossa, which impresses every man she Raphael meet, including Bradley's kidnappers. While Raphael tracks down a real estate deal, Cecile contacts the Miami CIA representative, who leads her to a killer who wants to make a deal. Meanwhile, the man who originally conscripted Cecile hopes to see her again and flies to Miami with his chicken-pox-infected daughter. Sullivan uses these odd ingredients to spoof CIA operations and agents, but her stilted prose and broad characterization weigh down her tale. (Feb.)