A Long Walk Up The Water Slide: A Neal Carey Mystery (Neal Carey Mysteries)

A Long Walk Up The Water Slide: A Neal Carey Mystery (Neal Carey Mysteries)

Product Description If theres anything Neal Carey should know by now, its this: Never open the door if a one-armed man might be standing on the other side. Because that man is bound to be his very own Dad, Joe Graham, who will only sniff at his housekeeping and make him an offer hed better not refuse. But maybe falling in love has softened Neals instincts, because before he knows it, Graham is in his kitchen, and Neal is embarking upon a job with a new twist. This time he doesnt have to find someone, he has to keep someone from being found - and clean up her act in the process From Austin to Las Vegas to San Antonio, Neal and his charge are on the lam and engaged in a constant battle of wits to keep from killing each other, before someone else does the job for them. From Publishers Weekly Elmore Leonard meets Professor Higgins in Winslows (Way Down on the High Lonely) latest high-spirited Neal Carey caper. Neal agrees to hide big-haired Brooklyn gal Polly Paget from the media and other predators after she publicly accuses her former boss and lover, family-TV personality Jack Landis, of rape. Once again in the hire of the secret Friends of the Family organization, Neal and his lady love, Karen Hawley, agree to smooth some of Pollys rough edges before she reenters the public eye. Landis, his prim co-star/wife Candy and their investors (some of whom are less than legitimate), who are poised to expand the Landis communications empire into a family theme park, are leery of ugly publicity. The missing woman is hunted by assorted parties: a magazine publisher out for a high-profile centerfold sends a drunken investigator after her; the Landises hire a former government agent to find her; and someone else has called upon the services of a coolly competent hired gun. After assorted cast members converge at the Carey home in Austin, Tex., Neal, Karen, Polly and an unexpected new friend run for cover. Winslows dialogue zips along as smartly as the action. If Polly becomes less interesting as her diction improves, the rewards of this tale, whose lowlife characters rival the cast of Guys and Dolls, remain undiminished. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus Reviews A change of pace for Neal Carey, whos been petulantly hunting down people for the Friends of the Family (Way Down on the High Lonely, 1993, etc.). This time, Joe Graham and the other Friends want him to keep much-hunted Polly Paget under wraps in the Nevada desert while he cleans up her grammar, her diction, and her act before she goes on network TV to denounce her boss, Jackson Landis, founder and majority owner of the Family Cable Network, as a rapist. The real change, though, is in the tone of this caper. Neals intellectually elitist mysticism wouldnt cut it as Pollys pursued by (1) a former FBI agent working for Jackson Landis and Candy, his wife and partner in a new theme park to be called (of course) Candyland; (2) a porn prince eager to sign Polly to a centerfold contract; (3) an unsavory developer who whitewashes his silent partnership in Candyland by going to confession every day; and (4) a hit man whose obsessive professionalism cant hide the fact that he keeps missing the target. So Winslow wisely shuffles Neal offstage for long, foolishly amusing stretches while Candy tracks down Polly and bonds with her; the senior Friends, learning that the New Orleans mob is moving in on Jacks empire, tiptoe away from backing Polly; and all parties concerned scramble to come out on top in a final tarantella worthy of Donald E. Westlake. Not as distinctive as Neals earlier adventures, but the broadest, loosest, funniest of them all. Its great to see Neal taking a break from his M.A. thesis on that stinker Smollett without getting all hung up for a change. -- Copyright 1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.