“A Lawrence De Maria title gives you more bang for your buck than just about anything in the book marketplace today.” (FLORIDA WEEKLY); “Pulitzer-nominee De Maria has written a stunner of a private eye mystery, with an incredible twist at the end.” (John Crudele, NEW YORK POST); De Maria is “a master of thriller dialogue.” (WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF BOOKS) Private eye Alton Rhode has recently returned from military duty, recovering from wounds, when a beautiful woman asks him to find the bank-embezzler lover who fathered her daughter and disappeared 14 years earlier. The man, she says, does not know about their child – but his bone marrow may hold the key to saving her life. Rhode, whose private investigation business withered when his reserve unit was called up, takes the case, although it seems hopeless. If the F.B.I. can’t find the father, how can he? That turns out to be the least of Rhode’s problems, as he almost immediately becomes the target of a deranged mobster. He only survives because a mysterious guardian angel – with an automatic pistol – is watching his back. It is soon apparent that nothing is as it seems. Bodies pile up as Rhode’s search takes him from a college campus to a nursing home to a Florida orange grove. And, finally, to a revelation he never sees coming. Winner of an AP award for crime reporting, De Maria cut his teeth on financial fraud at The New York Times and Forbes.
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Description:
“A Lawrence De Maria title gives you more bang for your buck than just about anything in the book marketplace today.” (FLORIDA WEEKLY); “Pulitzer-nominee De Maria has written a stunner of a private eye mystery, with an incredible twist at the end.” (John Crudele, NEW YORK POST); De Maria is “a master of thriller dialogue.” (WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF BOOKS) Private eye Alton Rhode has recently returned from military duty, recovering from wounds, when a beautiful woman asks him to find the bank-embezzler lover who fathered her daughter and disappeared 14 years earlier. The man, she says, does not know about their child – but his bone marrow may hold the key to saving her life. Rhode, whose private investigation business withered when his reserve unit was called up, takes the case, although it seems hopeless. If the F.B.I. can’t find the father, how can he? That turns out to be the least of Rhode’s problems, as he almost immediately becomes the target of a deranged mobster. He only survives because a mysterious guardian angel – with an automatic pistol – is watching his back. It is soon apparent that nothing is as it seems. Bodies pile up as Rhode’s search takes him from a college campus to a nursing home to a Florida orange grove. And, finally, to a revelation he never sees coming. Winner of an AP award for crime reporting, De Maria cut his teeth on financial fraud at The New York Times and Forbes. **