Rescue: A John Cuddy Mystery - Hardcover

Healy's John Cuddy, the Boston-based PI with an old-fashioned code of honor, has starred now in 10 books, and his latest is a humdinger. Stopping on the highway to help a young woman change a tire, Cuddy is reminded by the awkward kid with her of a buddy he lost in Vietnam?and always felt guilty about?and promises to help if the boy should ever need it. Next day the driver is found dead and the boy has disappeared. Without missing a beat, Cuddy takes up the case, finds the boy's uptight religious parents and finds also a scary Southerner who may have killed the girl and who seems obsessed with a tub-thumping religious evangelist based in the Florida Keys. True to his code, Cuddy is off to Florida and, eventually, after a lot of skilfully laid-on local color and another murder, to a slam-bang climax as the horrible secret of what has appeared to be a run-of-the-mill sect is revealed. The plot is no more than serviceable, and the religious-right villain may be over the top. But the writing is deft and clean, the moments of violent action blood-curdlingly convincing and the zany Keys atmosphere is caught better than anyone has done it since John D. Macdonald. An elderly retired Navy man and his wife, who help out in the crunch, are beautifully drawn and deeply touching. Only a certain sexual complacency about Cuddy (he thinks he's catnip to women) prevents him from being an ideal Eye. Rights: Jed Mattes.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

If there's one thing we've learned in nine previous John Cuddy novels, it's that the Boston private eye keeps his promises. When Cuddy stops to help a young woman change a flat, the woman's companion, 10-year-old Eddie, extracts a promise: if Eddie is ever lost, Cuddy will find him. Shortly thereafter, the car is found abandoned and the woman dead, but there's no sign of Eddie. A promise is a promise, and Cuddy takes up the search, which takes him initially to New Hampshire, where he endures a chilling encounter with Eddie's fundamentalist parents and a deadly encounter with a backwoods zealot who makes those Deliverance guys seem downright agreeable. From there, it's down to Florida to the world headquarters of the Church of the Lord Vigilant. Something's wrong at the church compound, and Cuddy is positive Eddie is inside. With the aid of a retired military man, Cuddy does his damndest to keep his promise to a frightened little boy. We should all have such a guardian angel. One of the best entries in a consistently outstanding series. Wes Lukowsky