But Wylie ''Coyote'' Melville, professional therapist and hobbyist forensic consultant, is not so sure. He has questions which the police seem rather reluctant to answer.
From the murder on, the book takes a wild anarchic downward path, at once hilarious, sad, tense and suspenseful, just like the good old detective fiction of yesteryear, only this novel is set in contemporary south Florida.
Adding to Wylie's dilemmas are his father, who denies he has Alzheimer's, saying he was merely ''closing up shop''; his sister Venise (overweight) and her husband Oliver (who has bought her an electric three-wheeled scooter for Christmas for that reason); friend Bay Lettique, a sleight-of-hand man who spends most nights in a poker room separating tourists and senior citizens from their money; and a homeless man who sets up camp on Wylie's front lawn.
- Ted Fox is a Dunedin online marketing consultant.
