Deadly Sweet

The murder of a beautiful woman thrusts Florida lawyer turned boat salesman Eddie Priest into a tangle of vested interests, furtive passions, greed, and an unleashed ecological mania that could trap even the most ingenious hunter.

From Kirkus Reviews

Warmed-over Florida noir from rolling-stone novelist Watson (Blind Tongues, 1988). When the inoffensive botanist who came to see her boss, Clinton Reynolds, at the Florida Bureau of Water Management disappears along with every computerized trace of his visit, Corey Darrow wangles an introduction to Eddie Priest, a college football legend turned lawyer--not knowing that Eddie's been bullied into retirement and is making a living selling sailboats. Eddie hears Corey out, takes her for a therapeutic mini-cruise aboard the Sight Unseen, doesn't quite seduce her, sends her on her way with the usual assurances, and hears the next morning that she's drowned, a .357 Smith and Wesson clutched in her hand, in a canal her car ran into on the way home. The setup would be obvious to anybody who'd ever read a book, but Eddie and Corey's lookalike sister Sawnie never have, and you wouldn't believe how long it takes them to convince themselves that Corey was run off the road by sociopathic Creek Indian Harry Feather, who got a little carried away executing agribusiness magnate Lofton Coltis's orders to give Corey a serious scare. Coltis is out to protect his empire from the secret the mysterious botanist had dug up; Eddie is stung by guilt to avenge Corey; Sawnie wants vengeance too, but not if it means revealing her illicit romance and aborting her congressional campaign; Harry's first love, Moira Breath, back from Barnard with practical law knowledge, wants to reclaim Coltis's land for her tribe; Harry just likes to lean on people. Watson writes as if he had one complicated tale to tell--his incantatory approach to Florida landscapes and human relations is right out of John D. MacDonald at his windiest--but ends up resolving all his problems by wholesale manslaughter instead of developing the conflicts within. Six corpses, all without a clue. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This new work by Watson (Blind Tongues, LJ 2/1/89) contains all the elements of a good historical mystery without re-creating a distant past. Finely crafted characters, places, and events all bring a present-day Florida to life-with an added hint or two of Southern decadence. Bubbly Corey Darrow dies because of the evil machinations of a shady agribusiness owner. Eddie Priest, an ex-football player/ex-lawyer smitten with Corey's charm after just one meeting, vows to find her killers. A few moments of self-conscious literateness aside, the author's resilient prose, precise imagery, subtle plotting, and local color should draw an appreciative audience.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Watson (Weep No More My Brother) has created a stunning, intricate bit of Florida noir in this story about Eddy Priest, a non-practicing lawyer aiming for the simple life as a sailboat salesman on Florida's west coast. Beautiful Corey Darrow tells him of a plot to discredit her in her water management job in Okee City, north of Miami, and of her fears that she is being followed by someone driving an old Cadillac convertible. Eddie, smitten, suggests she's imagining things. When she's found in her car, drowned in a drainage canal with a Magnum in her hand, Eddie is guilt-stricken. Corey's equally beautiful sister, Sawnie, asks his help in probing Corey's death. Eddie is smitten all over again, and soon he and Sawnie are deep in a struggle with a ruthless sugar planter and his homicidal henchmen, two of the nastiest villains of recent fiction. It's hair-raising fun to watch the colorful characters work their own agendas. Sawnie, e.g., a top aide (and ex-mistress) of the populist governor, wants to run for Congress. Some spectacularly gorey deaths and a sudden bloody ending leave the suggestion that Eddie and Sawnie will continue the story. Readers will look forward to that. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Eddie Priest is a former college football star turned environmental lawyer turned boat salesman. The career change was predicated by a developer who explained to Eddie how he would bait a hook with Eddie's head (through the eye cavities, if you were wondering). Corey Darrow, an environmentalist hoping to rekindle Eddie's interest in the cause, is killed leaving Eddie's place. Corey's sister, Sawnie, enlists Eddie's aid in investigating her sister's death. Their quest leads them to Harry W. Feather, a Native American of dubious character with ties to local farming magnate Lofton Coltis. Eddie and Sawnie, now lovers, are sure that Feather did it and that the thread leads back to Coltis, but they haven't a clue as to why. This is a claustrophobic suspense novel of early Elmore Leonard-like intensity. Watson has mastered Leonard's unique and involving mix of past and present tenses and his ability to capture ordinary people forced to face down evil. But that's just a point of reference; Watson is an original, not a mimic. If he continues to produce work of this quality, he'll soon be the standard with which others are compared. Wes Lukowsky --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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