Bob Morris_Zack Chasteen 02

TOO HOT TO HANDLEFormer Miami Dolphin Zack Chasteen had a short pro career, but he's got a long memory. When his old gridiron pal Monk DeVane asks him to help beef up security at Libido, an X-rated Jamaican resort, Zack agrees. But he soon regrets it when he finds the resort owner quite literally on the hot seat--sitting on a bomb that will detonate if he so much as twitches a muscle…Things get even more explosive at the adult playground of Libido, where tourists indulge in sun and plenty of bawdy fun. From Montego Bay to the island's back country, Zack Chasteen descends into Jamaica's heart of darkness and its bloody political scene, bringing along his inscrutable sidekick Boggy, a Taino Indian shaman. With bullets flying and people dying, Zack must seek out the truth and settle some scores before his own life goes boom."Advertised as a year-round summer read, this is exactly that, thanks to smart, polished prose; an affable narrator; swift, straightforward plotting in bite-size chapters; and a fun, exotic setting." --*Booklist*From Publishers WeeklyMorris's zany sophomore effort features another Jamaican-set crime drama narrated by former Miami linebacker Zack Chasteen, last seen in Bahamarama, the author's rollicking debut. A football halftime party to which Zack has been invited by old Miami Dolphins teammate Monk DeVane is marred by a bomb scare targeted at Monk's white Jamaican boss, Darcy Whitehall, a tycoon of adult-themed resorts. Whitehall thinks that his personal security might improve with Zack on the Libido Resorts payroll, so Zack temporarily bids adieu to British girlfriend Barbara and heads to Jamaica to play bodyguard. Upon his arrival, a violent explosion kills Monk, and it's up to Zack to wade through a bevy of suspects, most of whom are dueling political factions, because in Jamaica "everything is politics." Could the guilty party be Whitehall's slimy, money-laundering associate, Freddie Arzghanian, or possibly Nanny's People United, an aggressive political action group bent on keeping Whitehall's son, Alan, a proponent of shady land developments, from getting elected in a local parliamentary election? Blame shifts and the mystery smoothly unravels itself while both Zack and Barbara (in Berlin with a "Trumpish" entertainment entrepreneur) wrestle with temptation but remain refreshingly monogamous. The tropical backdrop and Zack's wisecracking commentary make for another crackling whodunit for Morris. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistFormer Miami Dolphin Zack Chasteen returns in Morris' enjoyable follow-up to Bahamarama (2004). After Jamaican playboy hotelier Darcy Whitehall's near miss with a chair bomb at a Florida Gators game, Zack heads down to the aptly named Libido resort to help out his old pal Monk with security, only to watch helplessly as Monk disappears in a massive explosion in the airport parking lot. Zack weaves through political unrest, shady land deals, and hot-to-trot tourists to find out whose thumb is on the detonator. Despite some quirky trappings (the sex-sodden setting, Zack's inscrutable sidekick Boggy, who purports to be the last representative of the long-extinct Taino Indians), Morris plays it fairly straight, with an easygoing sense of humor that runs less to the gonzo satire of Hiaasen or Shames than to Westlakean drolleries such as, "he looked shaken but hadn't stirred." Advertised as a year-round summer read, this is exactly that, thanks to smart, polished prose; an affable narrator; swift, straightforward plotting in bite-size chapters; and a fun, exotic setting. David WrightCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved