Key West series by Laurence Shames (#1-#8)
Requirements: ePUB/MOBI reader, 5.5 MB
Overview: Laurence Shames has been a New York City taxi driver, lounge singer, furniture mover, lifeguard, dishwasher, gym teacher, and shoe salesman. Having failed to distinguish himself in any of those professions, he turned to writing full-time in 1976 and has not done an honest day’s work since.
Genre: Fiction » Mystery/Thriller
1. Florida Straits
Joey Goldman’s flying south for the winter. The second-string New York wiseguy just packed up his faithful girlfriend Sandra and took off for Key West — land of sun, surf and sleaze — where a small-time hustler in search of a racket can score the big one. If he can find it. Enter Joey’s half brother Gino. On the lam from the mob after one of the most royally screwed-up jewel heists in Florida history, Gino’s a man in need of a fall guy. Which is where Joey comes in . . .Suddenly, everyone’s after Joey — including the ruthless Miami don who wants his three million worth of uncut emeralds and who just dispatched his goons to deliver Joey a one-way ticket — out. Now Joey’s where he always wanted to be — in the big time. All he has to do is find out where the stones are stashed. And for an unikely hero out to make a killing, this could be Paradise . . . if he lives long enough.
2. Scavenger Reef
When Augie Silver disappeared at sea during a sudden storm, it was a loss felt initially by his young wife and by his crew of drinking cronies. When word of his apparent drowning extended beyond the Key West world Augie had made his home, however, his loss was felt by a greater number of people. For Augie Silver was a painter, or more precisely an artist, waiting for recognition. And his death proved to be the event necessary to turn a lifetime of eccentricity into a career of genius. Suddenly Augie was hot. While his wife, Nina, continued to mourn, his friends began to awaken to the realization that all those paintings Augie had given them over the years might have been worth holding on to. In fact, according to the New York art dealer who was also Augie’s agent, they might be worth a whole lot. So when Augie returns from the "dead," having been shipwrecked on an island off Cuba, it is with somewhat mixed emotions that he is welcomed home. His wife is jubilant, but all those who had read dollar signs in Augie’s obituary aren’t too sure how happy they are to have him back, especially since each of them seems to need an influx of cash in the worst way. And when mysterious things start happening to Augie, little "accidents" that seem less than accidental, he’s not too sure how happy he is to be back either.
3. Sunburn
When Vincente Delgatto—an aging Mafia Godfather—decides to spend some time in Key West with his half-Jewish bastard son Joe Goldman (who is decidedly not in the family business, he thinks the worst that can happen is he’ll get a little too much sun. After all, the only thing he wants is peace and quiet, and some time to recover from the recent loss of his sainted wife.
But then Joe introduces the old man to his pal Arty Magnus, a local reporter who has had his fill of covering what passes for crime in this funky community of tourists and refugees. Together, they cook up the idea of collaborating on the godfather’s memoirs: the last word on the decline and fall of the mob.
4. Tropical Depression
Key West may very well get its first legal gambling parlor if Murray Zemelman, a.k.a. The Bra King, and his new partner Tommy Tarpon, a local Native American, can pull off their kooky, Prozac-induced plan. When a local mafioso and Key West’s most crooked politician decide to get a piece of their action, Murray and Tommy fight for their money and their lives in a battle of wits, writs and anti-depressants.
5. Virgin Heat
Meet Angelina Amaro, the star-crossed daughter of Mafia capo Paul Amaro. For ten long years virginal Angelina has been carrying a secret torch for the stool pigeon who betrayed her father to the cops in exchange for a spot in the Witness Protection Program. When she recognizes her beloved’s hands mixing drinks in a relative’s Key West vacation video, Angelina stops pining and starts planning her escape from her family and reunion with her man Sal, who now goes by the name of Ziggy Maxx. Naturally, the course of true love never did run smoothly, and it isn’t long before Papa is on her trail with hilarious results.
6. Mangrove Squeeze
People go to Key West for lots of different reasons. Not all of them are legal, sane, or in the interest of public safety.
Suki Sperakis went to Key West for a better life—even though the tradeoff was a series of lousy jobs, the latest of which is selling ad space for a third-rate freebie paper.
Aaron Katz went to Key West to escape the double hell of a Wall Street job and a soured marriage. And to pursue a dream of restoring a doomed and rotting wreck of a guest house.
Then there were the Russians…THEY came to Key West for the opportunity. Blue jeans! Gold chains! Harley-Davidsons! And a cozy, unprotected spot that harbored the richest, most explosive stash of contraband they could possibly imagine.
When Suki starts sniffing around a story that could really make a difference to the town she loves, and Aaron falls for her as the blithe spirit who could turn his life around, and Aaron’s senile father joins forces with retired mafioso Bert the Shirt, and the Russians start to worry that too many nosy Americans are sniffing around.
7. Welcome to Paradise
Take Big Al, an inept minor-league Mafioso who’s boss of a New York fish market, and send him to Key West. Have a rival who’d like to take over the market put out a contract on said mobster. Then give the hit man just enough information to make sure he fingers the wrong guy. That’s not hard when both the target and an innocent tourist have the same vanity plate, even though one’s a short guy with a big dog and the other’s a big guy with a small dog. At first the only thing Big Al of the Mob and Big Al the furniture salesman from New Jersey have in common is their desire for a few days of R and R in the Sunshine State. But by the time the salesman’s been nearly done in by a ton of rancid calamari and has narrowly escaped death by stuffed sailfish, there’s another link between the two Al’s, and therein lies the tale. That link is a beautiful woman named Katy Sansone.
8. The Naked Detective
The gumshoe bit wasn’t Peter Amsterdam’s idea. His accountant made him do it. But Pete should have figured that with a comfortable tax dodge in the sunny Florida Keys comes the inevitable knockout blonde looking for help. Sometimes life can be like the movies. Unfortunately for Pete, it isn’t black and white.
There’s more to the blonde than meets the eye. And fast on her stiletto heels is a hotshot Key West thug, his possibly duplicitous nympho daughter, a goon in control of the islands’ gambling boats, and a stone-cold corpse whose unexpected appearance has stripped Pete down to his last nerve. All he has to work with are what’s left of his wits, a gun that’s never been fired, and the dashing hope that he can survive this crime long enough to solve it.
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