Totally Dead Book

Author Michael Stone actually works as a private detective in Denver, which gives his series about a similarly-situated shamus named Streeter a welcome edge. There's also a sly sense of the basic foolishness of criminal life, probably left over from Stone's previous career as a newspaper reporter. Also, you can't help feeling good about a mystery such as Totally Dead, which includes a hoodlum named Mitch Bosco who listens to Tony Robbins self-help tapes but occasionally burns down the wrong house, and a self-styled Godfather, Al Lucci, called "the Cheese Man," who does more damage with his restaurant food than with his guns. The muscular, very-married Streeter and his wise old bail bondsman partner Frank Dazzler have to come between these two pillars of Colorado crime when some out-of-state heavies try to move in on Lucci's operation. Lucci might not be much of a capo, but he is an old client who pays his bills on time--qualities that earn Streeter's loyalty. Spicing up the stew is the return of the sexy, ambitious Ronnie Taggart, who added zest to Stone's first Streeter book, The Low End of Nowhere. That and two other adventures--Token of Remorse and A Long Reach--are available in paperback. --Dick AdlerRead More