The Quick Adios (Times Six) — Tom Corcoran

Tom Corcoran returns with a seventh novel, his first Alex Rutledge mystery in three years. Longtime fans and newcomers to this series are sure to enjoy The Quick Adios (Times Six). It is January in Key West, and freelance photographer Rutledge is summoned by his lover, city detective Beth Watkins, to a double-murder scene in The Tideline condo near Smathers Beach. When he arrives, cameras in hand, Alex is asked to leave. There is no explanation given. Within an hour he is offered another photo job, this time to document an office building in the Sarasota area. He flies north with the client later that day only to find confusion and murder on that end, too. The main problem in both locations, Alex quickly learns, is the abundance of suspects. Rutledge has no desire to be an investigator, and much prefers his work for ad agencies and travel magazines. But he is driven by circumstances and the death of a friend to analyze and act. In each case his photography helps to both create and answer questions, and his tenacity takes him to places that police cannot go. It also takes him, his friend Sam Wheeler, and Detective Watkins to situations that they may not survive. As in previous Rutledge novels, Key West, with its characters, history, natural beauty and isolation, plays a fundamental role in the tale, in this instance the events of two murder cases.