Deal on Ice

February 2, 1997
Miami contractor John Deal hopes to reconcile with his wife, Janice, after her nervous breakdown. But it's slow going. In this fourth and best installment in a first-rate thriller series (Deal to Die For, etc.), Standiford litters the road back to serenity with dead bodies. Janice's boss, Arch Dolan, owner of a successful independent bookstore in Coral Gables, Fla., is killed in an apparent after-hours robbery. Then, in quick succession, the CEO of a huge bookstore chain and a local lawyer-fixer (and his doxy) meet spectacularly violent deaths. Deal starts finding links, including Dolan's sister Sara; the Nebraska-based Worldwide Church of Light, led by televangelist-mogul James Ray Willis--and the Kittles, cuddly 60-somethings who seem to have walked right off a Norman Rockwell magazine cover but who are stone-hearted killers. Deal and poor, rattled Janice are on the move and in constant danger, from south Florida to a blood- and snow-covered climax in Nebraska. The main villain's attempt to control worldwide communications is a bit goofy, but readers won't care because Standiford serves up crackerjack action and memorable characters like the killer Kittles, she in her Minnie Pearl hats, he in polyester, fitting in everywhere--lethally. $30,000 ad/promo; author tour; U.K., translation, first serial, dramatic rights: Sobel Weber.

A book is boring when the author doesn't give the listener enough information for the listener to feel invested in the well-being of the main character. A plot is boring when the author doesn't give the listener enough information to anticipate the solution to the crime or crime series. When the author keeps the listener blindfolded until Chapter 24, as in the case of DEAL ON ICE, the listener simply doesn't care who died or why, even if the problem in the book is caused by a relgious Goldfinger type seeking to dominate the World Wide Web. There is no setting within a thousand miles of Omaha, Nebraska, like the one John Deal moves around in for an hour and a half of the story. At the core of the book, there is an estranged couple whose sexual coupling is realistically staged, and Ron McLarty also does angry women well. But, his sense of integrity to the performing arts requires him to read the book with a deep sense of weariness. Anyone who finds this combination appealing will enjoy this. M.D.H. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine