Book Deal

John Deal #4

by Les Standiford

Reluctant sleuth and Miami developer John Deal is the last of his kind - a builder who appreciates his craft. His friend Arch Dolan was the last of his kind, too, a Miami bookseller who sold books because he loved them. Now someone has killed him for it. And he's only the first body to fall. In quick succession the CEO of a huge bookstore chain and a local lawyer meet violent ends...and Deal starts finding connections. Still, it's not easy for his estranged wife Janice, is still emotionally and physically scarred from mishaps the last time Deal stepped into the path of the wrong people. But Janice was close to Arch and she's as eager to find the killer as her husband. Working together, they discover that Arch's sister, lately employed by a charismatic revivalist, has disappeared. With the clues pointing north, Deal and Janice set out on a journey to a distant and frigid climate, one that threatens to chill them out for good.

Genres: Mystery

336 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1997

About the author

Les Standiford is a historian and author and has since 1985 been the Director of the Florida International University Creative Writing Program. Standiford has been awarded the Frank O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, a Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in Fiction, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, and belongs to the Associated Writing Programs, Mystery Writers of America, and the Writers Guild.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I jumped into the middle of Standiford's Deal series after hearing Standiford's name among the better writers in the Florida mystery/thriller sub-genre. Deal is a general contractor who gets caught up in events and ends up investigating them. From references to earlier books in the series, it seems there is a pattern; Deal starts investigating, puts his wife in peril, she gets hurt and he comes to the rescue. Here he investigates the death of a good friend and the apparent disappearance of that good friend's sister and it leads him to some of the villans you might expect in a book written in the 1990s. Decent enough, but nothing to write home about.

[bobg · Rating 3 out of 5]

No real mystery, but a lot of gratuitous violence

[Rob Smith, Jr. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is another fun John Deal story by Les Standiford. To start, I am a big Les Standiford fan. In fiction and non-fiction. This is the first book of his I would say is a disappointment.

In 'Deal on Ice' there's lots of action and another heavy handed punch to religious faith by an author. When I read 'One More Sunday' by John D. MacDonald back when it came out it was the first MacDonald book that really disturbed me as it went spinning around attacking anything with faith. Since then I've read far more in the genre - Let's-Make-Religion-The-Bad-Guy. Even more specifically organized religion. It seems an easy literary device to build a story around. It might be OK if the angle was used with some intellect. But I've yet to read one where thought is involved, including MacDonald's turn. Someone is a religious "zealot" and they are out to destroy the world, the society, a family. Never is there a balance of someone else with faith who might redeem the bad religious guy, usually a murderer of some kind. Never is there a discussion by characters of any value of faith. It's just a wan ton machine gunning of religious faith...and ALWAYS Christian. There may be stories of bad guy rabbis or Hindu priests gone wild, but I've yet to find them. MacDonald went after a cult in 'The Green Ripper'. But my concern isn't with some fictional cult. My concern is with the bashing of a specific religion in the same way with no redeeming value given to the religious ideals.

And here's the real crux of it all: The least the authors could do is balance the story with establishing the main hero or characters as atheists out to right wrongs. Or maybe a dialogue with characters as to their reasons for an inner hatred to those with religious beliefs. That would give more power as the religious bad guys are defeated.

Or here's a thought!: How about a twist where the head of the religious organization is really an atheist and then the hero has a struggle with what he believes as he tries to bring the bad guy to defeat! Now that would be something fresh!

I'm very tired of the technique. In this one there's some allegory of small bookstores, mega-bookstores, mega-churches and that reading more will save you from those with religious beliefs. Too bad the author didn't have the guts to step forward and just craft a story about atheism vs all faiths and be done with it than the silly attempt strung together in this book.