Deadly Catch: A Mac McClellan Mystery (Mac Mcclellan Mysteries)
Meet Mac McClellan, retired lifer fond of beer, barbeque, and trout fishing and trying for some peaceable angling in the Florida panhandle. Then he hooks a corpse. Mac—and the reader—are pulled into a complex but recognizable plot: there’s a fat sheriff, a wellborn lady slurping martinis at breakfast, an oily politician, and a clutch of smiling people who are not what they seem. Readers fond of the hard-boiled detective form are not after plot, which only takes about six pages to finally explain, but rather atmosphere and a way of absorbing the world. Read this tale and soak up single malt, inhale Mac’s grilled potatoes and roasted onions, learn how to make marijuana brownies (first heat the canola oil . . .), and join Mac in a really fine set piece toward the end. In fins and mask and carrying a camera, he goes under the dark water to document the villainy at dock’s end. It’s a scene reminiscent of Fleming, and it’s the Mac we want to see if we meet again: a man of action, working alone. --Don Crinklaw