Massacre Island

by Martin Hegwood

Book Overview

Private Investigator Jack Delmas has an ex-wife in Memphis, a young daughter fast slipping away from him, and a practice made up of chasing down deadbeats or working for them - until a massacre in an... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312983158
• ISBN13: 9780312983154
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.1" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Another Jack Delmas mystery

The novel starts with a 40-page out-of-place chapter as PI Jack Delmas and Sheriff's Deputy Jimbo McInnis spend a night on the town. Jimbo majored in football at Mississippi State University where he was a starting lineman. After drinking tequila shooters, Jimbo has a way of picking fights, e.g., going into a redneck bar filled with Univ. of Alabama fans and criticizing Bear Bryant's trademark hat ("What French Quarter queer joint you reckon he was cruising when he found that..."). The next morning he can't remember the brawl, doesn't know why he has a sore foot and mud all over his pickup, and he has a massive hangover.The story then flashes back to the start when Jack was hired by a woman to determine why her daughter, along with three other young people, was murdered in a summer cabin on Dauphine Island. Matters are complicated when Jack's ex-wife runs her mouth about Jack's case. She only told her friend on Dauphine Island, but that was like telling the tabloids. Jack receives a death threat before he half begins his inquiries. The 220 pages following Chapter One are divided into 26 additional chapters.The case involves possible smuggling, sports betting, environmental fanatics, various local watering holes with hard-drinking pool-playing rednecks, and assorted women (Jimbo is usually on the prowl). The reader learns various details about Jack's past life, and his incompatibility with his ex-wife - their preferred lifestyles are a mismatch (he was from a family of shrimpers and boat builders and played baseball at Ole Miss, she was a Rebelette from a cotton-planting banking family in higher society). Jack's ex- is jealous of the new women in his life, particularly if they have a bigger bust than she has.The novel has an interesting plot, and contains helpful maps of Dauphine Island and the Mobile County, Alabama area. It will probably be of particular interest to people familiar with the Gulf Coast.

Best in Stable

If you are new to Martin Hegwood, this is where to start. Other novels in the series are better than fair and worth the time( I prefer Green-Eyed Hurricane), but the necessary set-up information is here. Jack Delmas, divorced drop-out banker, private eye ( why are these P.I.s always retreads?) mixes with smugglers and bombers in an island setting in the company of a good ole boy "bubba" deputy sheriff with a high wheeled, swamp truck. Tavern brawls, parties with Jack's ex-wife's pre face lift crowd, and a next door group of costal undergraduates on weekend binge duty spice up an island inspired plot. This is a quick read, traditional who done what, that moves to a neatly prepared conclusion. Perfect book for a long plane ride or day at the beach.

A solid sleuthing story

All private investigator Jack Delmas wants to do is have fun with his daughter before she returns home to her mother and watch a football game. However, his brother the lawyer sends a potential client to Jack at his home in Bay St. Louis. Carolyn Caviss wants to know why someone killed her beloved daughter Rebecca and three other people in Dauphin Island off the Alabama coast. Jack wants to refuse the grieving woman stating that the police are still investigating the murders. He cannot reject her plea especially when he sees the media is painting the quartet as a focus of drug and orgy activities while the Sheriff does nothing except appear on TV. Jack travels to Dauphin Island and begins a careful inquiry so as to not run a foul of the local law enforcement investigation. However, with the help of Deputy Jimbo McInnis, Jack begins to uncover a twisted case that includes lunatic environmentalists, depraved wealthy individuals, and murderers who will kill a private sleuth getting to close to the truth. MASSACRE ISLAND is an engaging private investigative mystery that works because the key players make the plot work. The story line is deep as the case twists and turns with each step that appears to bring Jack closer to the truth yet ends up meandering further from why Rebecca died. Martin Hegwood provides an entertaining tale for those who enjoy a solid sleuthing story.Harriet Klausner