Bermuda
Grass
An
Alan Saxon Mystery
Keith
Miles
Poisoned
Pen Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59058-004-4 (1590580044)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-004-2 (9781590580042)
Publication Date: March 2002
List Price: $24.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Alan Saxon is helping to design a golf course at a new
hotel in Bermuda. When his daughter, Lynette, agrees to spend a week on
the island with him, he envisages an idyllic holiday. He is soon
disillusioned. To begin with, Lynette brings a fellow-student from
Oxford with her on the trip and Saxon has grave doubts about Jessica
Hadlow. The girl is arrogant, outspoken and brimming with sexuality.
Because her father is a wealthy international businessman, her attitude
to people and to money makes Saxon gasp.
Once in Bermuda, his troubles really start. The nervous Peter Fullard,
the course architect working with Saxon, tells him that someone is
trying to sabotage their work. Saxon at first refuses to believe this
but, when he discovers a dead body hanging from a cedar in the middle
of the new golf course, he has to revise his opinion. His problems
multiply. He has confrontations with the police, with his partner, with
the hotel management, and with the aggressive girlfriend of the murder
victim.
Just when he thinks the worst may be over, Saxon learns that his
daughter and her friend have been abducted. He is guilt-striken by the
fact that he was in bed with Nancy Wykoff, the leggy Texan with a
passion for golf. What kind of father is he?
His ex-wife, Rosemary, is only too pleased to tell him. The crisis
situation deepens. Saxon has to calm down his partner, soothe his
ex-wife, handle the police, keep Nancy Wycoff at arm's length, take on
the egregious Hadlow and deal with the kidnappers. And there is still a
brutal murder to be solved.
Saxon begins to wish that he'd never come anywhere near Bermuda ...
Review:
Ten years have lapsed between mysteries in this series, and for Bermuda Grass,
the fifth Alan Saxon mystery, it was time well spent by the author,
Keith Miles.
You don't have to be a golfing aficinado to enjoy this series. Miles
may use golfing as a setting (and in this particular book, golfing as a
sport is all but absent), however, the mysteries he crafts are
interesting in and of themselves. Alan Saxon continues to evolve as a
character, and in Bermuda Grass,
all his strengths and weaknesses are admirably on display. The island
setting adds to the intrigue of the reasonably presented, but
nonetheless fairly complex, plot.
Keith Miles writes under two other names, Edward Marston (the Nicholas
Bracewell mysteries, the Domesday mystery series, and the Christropher
Redmayne series) and Conrad Allen (the George Port Dillman mystery
books set on historical ships), but the Alan Saxon mysteries continues
to be among his best. Let's hope another ten years doesn't pass before
the next one.
Special thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC of Bermuda Grass for this review.
Review Copyright © 2002 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Bermuda Grass? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
Bullet
Hole
Harper & Row (Hardcover), June 1987
ISBN-10: 0-06-015764-X (006015764X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-015764-7 (9780060157647)
Double
Eagle
Harper & Row (Hardcover), June 1988
ISBN-10: 0-06-015942-1 (0060159421)
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-015942-9 (9780060159429)
Green
Murder
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), December 2002
ISBN-10: 1-59058-034-6 (1590580346)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-034-9 (9781590580349)
Flagstick
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), March 2004
ISBN-10: 1-59058-037-0 (1590580370)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-037-0 (9781590580370)
Bermuda Grass
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), March 2002
ISBN-10: 1-59058-004-4 (1590580044)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-004-2 (9781590580042)
Honolulu
Play-Off
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), March 2004
ISBN-10: 1-59058-071-0 (1590580710)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-071-4 (9781590580714)
Omnimystery
keywords for Bermuda Grass
...
Location(s) referenced: Bermuda.
