Octopus Alibi

By Tom Corcoran

Book Overview

In three previous novels, Tom Corcoran established himself as a shrewd observer of Key West's eccentricities and landscape. In Octopus Alibi , he delivers Alex Rutledge to labyrinths of the past, agendas of power, and greed that jumps generations.The suspected murder of a long-missing woman, the death of an elderly mentor, and the suicide of Key West's popular mayor are revealed a single April day. Rutledge, a freelance photographer with part-time forensic ties to the Monroe County Sheriff's Department and the KWPD, must accompany fishing guide and friend Sam Wheeler to identify a body in Broward County. Hours later, back on the island, a Key West detective coerces Alex into documenting Mayor Gomez's demise. Rutledge also learns he must administrate the estate of Naomi Douglas, the woman who encouraged his creative photography.Rutledge soon suspects that nothing is as it appears. The police choose not to see crimes. Only Rutledge senses foul play on the island, a linking of deaths, and the threat of more peril.Home-front troubles compound the dilemma. Teresa Barga, Alex's new housemate, is absorbed by the arrival in town of Whitney Randolph, a college friend with cash, wild stories, bent morals, and more alibis than an octopus has suckers. Randolph, it appears, has already slithered into the unfolding suspense, linking himself to scam victims and murder victims.Rutledge must ignore a relationship gone sour, then focus on wisps of clues to connect the past and present. Friends act out of character, officials become duplicitous, and threats of violence take Alex to the most dangerous confrontation of his life.Filled with edgy characters and insights to island existence, the tight plot of Octopus Alibi promises Tom Corcoran's most unforgettable tale of the hot, crazy tropics.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312291272
• ISBN13: 9780312291273
• Release Date: March 2003
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.6" x 1.2" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

Great Fun! Key West Local Color With Hot Story Included!

RUN....don't walk, to your nearest book seller and beg, borrow, or steal all four of Corcoran's Alex Rutledge novels. If Octopus Alibi hooks you, as I believe it will, you'll find multiple, fun to read who-done-it enjoyment in backtracking the previous three Rutledge sleuthing forays. Good fun, "lazy days" kind of reading. Lower Keys locals and frequent visitors alike are having an absolute blast peeking throughout to see where (or, if) they've been included (surely hoping that it's not jail or the morgue), and which political folly du jour gets a subtle send up. Of course the best places to eat or have drinks in or near Key West are also brought into the storyline. Yes, I can just see myself at sunset, re-reading Octopus Alibi at the bar at Louie's Backyard now, sipping a rum soda w/Key Lime, listening to "Cuban Crimes of Passion", & peeking around the pages to see if Rutledge shows up with a lady friend. Saw a sneak paragraph or two of Corcoran's next book, so I know that one is gonna be hot stuff, too! So, get yourself "hooked" - on Octopus Alibi right away!

Excellent follow to his other great Rutledge Novels

I was an inhabitant of the islands in the early 80's before the place got popular and crowded. Corcoran's description of the characters and the long term residents of the keys are dead on. If you know the keys and key west well, you will really enjoy this book and the other Rutledge novels. Fans of the Travis McGee series and Carl Hiassen's books would really enjoy this story as well as the others Corcoran mysteries. Keep them coming Tom!

The best Rutledge novel yet

I have read all of the Alex Rutledge novels by Corcoran and this one beats them all. I felt as if I were on the streets of Key West. The dialogue is gutsy and dead on, characters to love and hate. Tom Corcoran spins a murder mystery with the best of them.

Paradise Falls Apart

Even though he has to prepare for an assignment on Grand Cayman which he needs for income, Alex leaves Key West with friend and (sometime) co-conspirator Sam Wheeler to lend his support when Sam has to identify his sister's body. After a misidentification and a meeting with a slimy detective looking into the homicide, he returns home to find everything falling apart.His newly live-in love is strangely distant. The mayor is a suicide, and a good friend is dead. The one constant in his life seems to be his strained relations with the local police and sheriff's office.A man who takes friendship seriously, he is immediately suspicious of the manner of the mayor's death and that of his seemingly healthy friend Naomi. Is there a connection between the 2 deaths? He can't give up the idea that Naomi may have met an untimely end, and is soon butting heads with the police in an effort to start an investigation.Politics, land deals, sex, sun, sand, and sea. This one has it all. If there is one suggestion that I might make, it is to read the previous books before this one. If you get to know the characters populating Alex's Key West, then you will enjoy the way the story unfolds even more.

well-written amateur sleuth

He lives in Key West and makes his living in advertising and magazine articles. His heart is in photography and he sometimes shoots crime scenes when nobody else is available. He is called in to photograph the area of Mayor Steve Gomez's death, which the police are ruling is a suicide.There's something about the scene that makes Steve think it wasn't a suicide. Hours later, Naomi Douglas is found dead and the medical examiner rules it death by natural causes. Alex finds a strong link between Steve and Naomi, including the fact they both came from the same Indiana hometown. After pleading, cajoling and begging, Alex gets the medical examiner to do an autopsy on Naomi and they discover a massive dose of oxcodone in her bloodstream. Now Alex has to find out what these two people knew that would make somebody want to kill them and then bring that somebody to justice.OCTOPUS ALIBI is a very clever character study as well as a well-written amateur sleuth novel. The protagonist has all the makings of a good police officer because once he catches the scent, he never stops hunting his prey. Tom Corcoran has written an intricately woven mystery that sub-genre fans will take delight in as they go crazy trying to figure out who the perpetrator is.Harriet Klausner