With its sure feel for the Key West that resides beneath the tourist facade and a quirky, hard-edged rhythm pulsing beneath the surface calm, this debut deserves a wide and welcoming audience. Untangling the twists proves dangerous and exacting as a parade of memorable characters send Rutledge on a trip down memory lane that includes flashbacks to the Cuban boatlift and dubious characters on both sides of the law. Rutledge's familiarity with the victims seems to be at the center of a mystery as snarled as a mangrove clump. Rutledge's involvement becomes more direct when additional murders and attempted murders occur-all aimed at women who are part of his somewhat promiscuous past. Rutledge's laid-back routine is disrupted when estranged girlfriend Annie Minnette shows up with some hastily gathered belongings after her roommate has been found murdered. Alex Rutledge, longtime Key West resident, earns a precarious living as a photographer whose work includes some crime-site picture taking for the police. Tom Corcoran - Mango Opera, Paperback - Although he prefers magazine work, freelance photographer Alex Rutledge wont turn down an occasional crime scene. Corcoran's colorful Key West debut shows that there's room for at least one more. Don't read this book if you have a tendency to wonder where your daughter is on long rainy nights.Southern Florida keeps turning out mystery writers. This is an evil book about an evil place. 'Tom Corcoran knows the foul reaches of Key West and so do I. Corcoran deftly evokes the spirit and physicality of the place, the low tide jubilance and enlivening fetor of its pleasures and instinctive criminality, as if the sun and ocean had blasted all the flowers of evil into its very genes.' - Jim Harrison 'THE MANGO OPERA is a very engrossing novel. This is a smart, exciting novel, one not-to-be-missed.' - James W Hall Not since McGuane's 92 IN THE SHADE has Key West been rendered so vividly and with such spare poetry. 'THE MANGO OPERA is a powerful debut novel full of juicy characters, crackling dialogue and thrill-a-minute action. A true mystery and a great read.' - Winston Groom Alex Rutledge Mystery Books In Publication Order The Mango Opera (1998) Gumbo Limbo (1999) Bone Island Mambo (2001) Octopus Alibi (2003) Air Dance Iguana (. Tom Corcoran's THE MANGO OPERA captures all of this with right-on characters and escalating suspense. 'Key West is crazy, dangerous, hilarious, and exotic.

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