Bone Key: A John Deal Mystery (John Deal Series Book 7)

Divits Tough Being A Small-time Hustler In Key West, Fl. When This Hustler Is Being Beaten By A Cop, John Deal Steps In To Stop It, But It Is Only A Temporary Rescue: The Hustler Turns Up Dead Only Two Days Later. The Cops Are Claiming Ignorance And The Locals Arent Saying A Word. Could The Dead Man Be Somehow Connected To A Seventy-year-old Tale Of Piracy, Murder, And Greed? No One Knows What Really Happened On That Storm-swept Night. But Something About The Legend And The Recent Murder Are Haunting John Deal To The Bone./div

when A Key West Hustler, Who Is Beaten Up By A Cop, Is Found Slain Two Days Later, The Police Claim Ignorance. All John Deal Has To Go On Are The Rumors Of The Man's Connection To A 70-year-old Tale Of Piracy, Murder, And Greed.

publishers Weekly

among Mystery Buffs, John D. Macdonald May Be The Poet Laureate Of South Florida, But Now Standiford Whose Work Has Been Praised By Elmore Leonard And Stephen King, Among Others Bids Fair To Be Macdonald's Heir Apparent. (travis Mcgee Fans Will Note John Deal's Resemblance To Macdonald's Salvage Consultant, And Standiford, Like Macdonald, Excels At Depicting Violence.) The Novel Takes Its Cue From John Hersey's Hymn To Key West (many Of The Citizens Are Well Acquainted With Mischief, But At A Cost). The Story Begins In 1931 With A Storm Passing Through The Florida Straits; There's A Devastating Explosion Aboard A Freighter, The Magdalena, And Then Oblivion. Many Years Later, John Deal, Who Inherited The Dealco Construction Firm From His Late Father, Is Visiting Key West To Discuss A Building Project. He Steps In To Help A Black Youth, Dequarius Noyes, From Being Harassed By A Deputy. Soon Afterward, Noyes Turns Up In Deal's Hotel Room Dead. In The Kid's Hand Is The Label From A Bottle Of Rare Wine, Vintage 1929, Worth Thousands Of Dollars. There's More, Much More, Including Buried Treasure, An Old Girlfriend Who Reappears Out Of Nowhere And, Of Course, Murder. The Labyrinthine Plot, Involving A Case Of Rare Wine Worth $100,000, Will Delight Oenophiles. Thriller Buffs In General And Readers Of South Florida Mysteries In Particular Should Find This One Well Up To Standiford's Standard. (apr. 15) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

It's tough being a small-time hustler in Key West, FL. When this hustler is being beaten by a cop, John Deal steps in to stop it, but it is only a temporary rescue: the hustler turns up dead only two days later. The cops are claiming ignorance and the locals arent saying a word. Could the dead man be somehow connected to a 70-year-old tale of piracy, murder, and greed? No one knows what really happened on that storm-swept night. But something about the legend and the recent murder are haunting John Deal to the bone THE STORM HAD PASSED through the Florida Straits the night before, at that time a piddling hurricane, with winds no more than seventy-five or eighty miles per hour, according to the newspapers.