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Summary
Summary
The bestselling author of The Fourth Deadly Sin spins a tale of a sultry undercover cop intimate with both sides of the law. Affluent south Florida is having a shark attack--but not in the water. The shark's name is Rathbone, a devastatingly handsome financial consultant that is bilking widows, retirees, and anyone else who'll bite. Enter Rita Angela Sullivan, the spearhead of a government sting--but will she be turned by love?
Author Notes
Lawrence Sanders was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 15, 1920. He graduated from Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 1942 and served in the Marine Corps from 1943 to 1946.
After years of working as an editor for a number of magazines, including Mechanics Illustrated and Science and Mechanics, Lawrence Sanders wrote and published his first novel, The Anderson Tapes (1970), at the age of 50 which won the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery Novel from The Mystery Writers of America. It was made into a film in 1971, as was The First Deadly Sin (1973).
Sanders died February 7, 1998
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (1)
Kirkus Review
Now there's a snappy title for Sanders' newest crime potboiler. Trouble is, heroine undercover cop Rita Sullivan doesn't sting anyone here--except maybe readers who put up with her and her creator's belly-flop into the Florida caper genre. Transferred to Fort Lauderdale from Tallahassee, Rita joins an ""independent surpra-agency"" of investigators--a federal attorney, a Treasury cop, etc., helmed by SEC investigator Tony Harker--to take down master swindler David Rathbone and his gang. Rathbone's an obsessed chisler, as eager to make sucker bets with his pals or rip off a florist for a free mum as he is to graze on Florida's lush crop of ""moochers,"" rich marks that he cons with phony investment schemes. But he's also a handsome and charming golden boy, so Rita's happy to hop into bed with him the night she picks him up, posing as a small-time moll; and soon she finds herself not only moving in but falling in love as he showers her with gifts and affection. That sits poorly with boss cop Harker, who's now also tossing the hay with Rita--and who can still see the moral rot beneath Rathbone's veneer. Meanwhile, Rathbone launches two major scams--one involving funny money printed on self-destructing paper, the other a futures exchange with drugs as the commodity bought and sold--that allow Sanders to strut some entertaining con scenarios. But Sanders stalls any narrative drive by scattering most of the rest of his plot among Rathbone's henchmen and the cops pursuing them. Rita regains center stage, however, when Harker at last orders Rathbone picked up: Will she keep her head and help cuff him? Or will she heed her heart and flee with him to Guatemala? Like a soda gone flat, this has all the right ingredients but none of the fizz of Leonard, Hiaasen, or Willeford. With Sanders' ever (and, by now, inexplicably) popular byline, though, it'll probably sleepwalk into best-sellerdom. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
