There are echoes of many other crime writers in the Matthew Hope books. Especially in this novel, one gets a taste of the family saga as history which Ross Macdonald perfected in his California-based novels of the 1950s with Lew Archer. No one can write crime novels about Florida without calling to mind the long-running series by John D. MacDonald or the current series of books by the Miamibased journalist Carl Hiaasen. Matthew Hope's position as the reluctant lawyer/sleuth also brings to mind William Tapply's Boston lawyer Brady Coyne.

The idea of a professional in one field straying over into the business of solving crimes has a long history, and the problems inherent in such a cross-over plague Matthew in many of the same ways they have plagued protagonists in other crime series.

However, this McBain series is not derivative. He has fashioned a world...