Trace 1

Trace, short for Devlin Tracey, is a drunk, and a womanizer. His girlfriend - or "roommate" - is a part-time hooker. Issues? You-sure-ya-betcha. Trace works irregularly for an insurance company to check out claims. The latest is a questionable death in a hospital where the deceased had only recently signed over his fortune in life-insurance to his doctor, and then just up and died. Assuming the doctor coerced and then killed his patient, Trace is called in. What follows is a prolonged excursion into an unimpressive mystery. The ending ties all plot-strings together, but with little substance in the body of the book, the end seems cheap. However, what lacks in mystery is more than made up for in Trace's character. Granted, he's not a savory character - but the blurbs when he tape records himself, and the snappy dialoge with other characters is what propels this book up to 4 stars. I would definitely take this book to the beach, but only if you buy it from a second-hand book dealer for less that $4. (The book itself was published in 1983 and sold for $2.95.)