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Readers of Dave Bednar's Fish or Cut Bait are in for a good deal of fun. Erie, PA might not come immediately to mind when one thinks of fishing charters, marina life, babes in cut off blue jeans that know how to handle a boat, or tough guys and drug deals gone bad, but this book has all of the above. Jack Crevalle is an ex Coast Guard man who just wants to live what passes for the good life in Erie: spending a lot of time on a fishing charter, drinking plenty of beer at the local bar, and hooking up with more than his share of women. When Jack's old sweetheart Gina turns up right around the same time an unmanned boat drifts into the marina and the bodies start turning up, Jack's simple life ain't so simple anymore. Turns out that underneath that carefree attitude is some old heartbreak courtesy of Gina. Now Gina needs help and Jack's friends at the marina (and the reader) are appropriately skeptical about her. Tommy Teague is the lead amateur investigator here - he is analytical almost to a fault but his reasoning drives the book forward and is a nice contrast to Jack's approach to the problem that has drifted into the marina. The book is at its best when it is alternating between the chapters at the marina and the ones centering on the tough guy characters, notably Biggie Big, who you just know are on a crash course with our friends at the marina. When those worlds collide the book is particularly strong too - the fight scenes and violence when they occur are very original, effective and damn funny where the author intends. This reader -- who admittedly zipped through the book, which speaks to its readability - felt that the only weakness was that perhaps the supporting characters at the marina were all too much of a piece: if tested I could likely remember who was the father of who and whose dad essentially owns the marina, but I would have to make an effort. Perhaps there were one or two too many supporting characters than the narrative truly required but this is a minor complaint and shouldn't prevent you from reading this book and won't prevent me from searching out Landlocked Sailors which was the first Pike's Marina mystery by Dave Bednar. Recommended.
Reviewed by Frank Wardega, October 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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