Cast in Stone

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Leo's boyhood hero, Henry "Heck" Sundstrom was larger than life. Lately, however Heck's life has been spiraling out of control. First the honeymoon boating accident that killed Heck's son and new daughter-in-law, Allison. And now the big man himself was dying--struck down by delivery truck in a seedy section of Seattle. As he starts to investigate, Leo begins to wonder if Allison went down with the ship. And whether, with the aid of his, aging legmen, "the Boys," he can prove they're on the trail of a "black widow" who may be less "late" and more lethal than anyone ever suspected.From Publishers WeeklyConfirming the bright promise of Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca?, Ford proves he's no one-book author with the second case for extremely likable, wisecracking Seattle PI Leo Waterman. A boating mentor from Waterman's youth, Heck Sundstrom, is critically injured in a traffic accident. What was he doing on a seedy downtown block after midnight? The accident follows the death of the Sundstrom's son and his new daughter-in-law, Allison, in a boat explosion. Waterman soon finds loose ends: Allison may not have been what she claimed. For help, Waterman calls on "the Boys," usually drunk old friends who know their way around Seattle's seamier precincts. Carl Craddock, a wheelchair-using surveillance expert with a foul mouth and caustic sense of humor, pitches in. Allison's trail of trouble leads the men across Washington State to Wisconsin and beyond. A helpless old lady, a small-town police chief and the minister of a Seattle megachurch were all involved with the enigmatic woman. But if Allison is alive and murdering, who went down with the Sundstrom boat? Ford keeps the menace growing, while his large cast of colorful characters supplies laughs in some of the best dialogue around. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library JournalYA. Written like a classic 1930's hard-boiled detective novel, Cast in Stone starts with a bang and keeps going from there. After 23 years, Marge, the love of detective Leo Waterman's life, needs his help. Her husband, Heck, an ex-friend of Leo's, is dying in a Seattle hospital after a hit-and-run accident. It is with great reluctance that Leo even considers getting involved as Marge rejected him and married his best friend, thus ruining that friendship and his life. Marge also wants Leo to help her uncover the mysterious circumstances of the death of her son and his fiancee in a boating accident. Heck was convinced that the "accident" was no accident and had set out to do his own investigation. Calling in some markers owed from old friends, Leo unravels the case piece by piece. In the course of his investigation, he finds decades-old murders and "suicides," and uncovers a small town's guilty secrets. Ford does an excellent job of tying together all of the various threads of this case. YAs will get a kick out of Leo Waterman and his sidekicks.?Susan B. McFaden, Fairfax County Public Library, VACopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.