Water Hazard

By Don Dahler

The follow-up to the critically acclaimed A Tight Lie--- a darkly funny, fast-talking mystery with a dash of sports and no shortage of action Golf is a game of consistency, and after too many missed fairways, missed putts, and missed cuts, Huck Doyle's career as a Tour pro is on life support. The sometime private eye has lost his full-time PGA player status and is back to scraping it out on minor tournaments. So it's only by the generosity of the father of an old law-school pal, Rick Wong, that Huck finds himself in paradise with a rare sponsor's exemption, gearing up to play in the Sony Open in Hawaii. But when his benefactor keels over dead from a gunshot during a practice round, Huck is obligated to find out who killed the millionaire banker and pillar of the community. Is it the young wife? A competitor trying to stop a secret bank merger? Or was it an assassination ordered from some distant shores? With his brother undergoing an experimental spinal-cord treatment and his relationship with a beautiful medical examiner showing some strain, Huck has more than enough on his mind as he tees off in a career-changing match. As the investigation carries him into the murky waters of international finance, computer encryptions, and the dark side of paradise, Huck finds himself playing the game of his life, on and off the golf course. In the footsteps of Tim Green and Mike Lupica, Don Dahler has once again written a riveting mystery that brings the world of sports into crime fiction. Water Hazard will satisfy thriller readers and golf fanatics alike.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312383533
• ISBN13: 9780312383534
• Release Date: March 2010
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 291 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

entertaining sports mystery

Huck Doyle is an attorney who does not practice law nor make much income as a PGA pro. Instead he earns money as a private investigator based in Los Angeles. As a favor to his son Rick who went to law school with Huck, wealthy banker Sing Ten Wong obtains a slot in the Sony Open in Hawaii. During the practice round at prestigious Waialae Country Club, an assailant shoots Sing Ten in the back, murdering Huck's affluent patron. The shot seemed to come from out of the ocean. Rick asks Huck to investigate as he believes professionals were hired to murder his father due to a bank merger deal. Huck makes inquires that lead to someone telling him to drop his investigation before he is buried in a sand trap. The latest Doyle golf investigation (see A Tight Lie) is an entertaining but thin sports mystery that focuses much more on the game than the murder and its financial motive. Huck is a fascinating character struggling to get back on the tour, but realizing he better not give up his day job. Although the denouement feels like a bogie, golf fans will enjoy Water Hazard as the protagonist will need to putt his way to the greens as his foes use irons to prevent his solving the case. Harriet Klausner