“I need you to solve my murder.” Was what the man partially disguised with a medical mask and ,large ridiculous looking sunglasses, that Mancuso thought the man bought at an Elton John garage sale, said when he approached Joey Mancuso.
Joey Mancuso and his wife, former FBI Special Agent, Marcy, where in Islamorada, Florida Keys, with the expectation of sunning, swimming, drinking a few locally brewed craft beers, enjoying freshly caught mahi-mahi and grouper, and simply relaxing from hectic New York City.
Former NYPD Homicide Detective, Mancuso, and now private investigator was not interested in getting involved in what seemed like an outlandish story. But how the timid, scared man, told the story, made Joey think twice about getting involved.
What followed was a series of murders— one body washing ashore the Islamorada Sandbar rattling sunbathers, another body with a bit off leg, picked up by a fishing charter in the Atlantic Ocean. Now, Joey’s mystery man was wanted for two homicides, smuggling a cache of fentanyl, and stealing from the dead men hundreds of thousands of dollars. To make it worse, Joey and Marcy were facing charges for harboring a wanted murderer.
So who was this mystery man? In his tenth entry in the Joey Mancuso, Father O’Brian Crime Mystery series, author Owen Parr doesn’t disappoint his readers. In his typical —what you think it is, isn’t, Parr takes the readers into a plot full of twists, turns and unexpected directions. Was Joey’s mystery man in fact a murderer? Was he a drug smuggler? Why is he wanted by the Chinese government? Also, why is the Department of Defense looking for him?
Without his New York brain trust and team, Joey solicits the help of friend, mystery author, and Miami Beach Police consultant, Jack Ryder. Plus, he calls colorful Miami Police Vice Squad’s undercover detectives, Jote and Tico, whom Joey describes as a cross between Cheech and Chong and The Pirates of the Caribbean. Together they embark in search of the truth, but that is quickly compounded by the disappearance of the mystery man. Now the team pivots into a search and rescue. But who has our mystery man? A Mexican cartel? The Chinese? The DOD? And why?
Fans of Arthur Conan Doyle’s -Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christies’ -Hercule Poirot, Michael Connelly’s -Harry Bosch, and James Patterson many mysteries will devour this well thought out and plotted crime mystery.
Parr’s — The Islamorada Murders is sure to quickly become a best seller, as many of his award-winning novels in the series have.
