Just like the terrific “The Turquoise Shroud” and its follow-up novel “The Long Gray Goodbye”, this third installment of Bobby Underwood’s Seth Halliday series hits its own home run.

Private Investigator Seth and his wife Caroline decide to dock their boat and set up a new home on Key Largo. All is bright and sunny as we watch love grow between the lovely couple. Romance in the hands of this gifted writer is like listening to the best of Sergio Mendez & Brasil.

But, of course, the bliss is interrupted by a new murder mystery that takes Seth to Dubrovnik, Croatia, then Monte Carlo and Miami. If you’ve never been to these places, Underwood paints a picture of them with words that make you want to hop on a plane and experience each locale for yourself.

The mystery itself is as creepy as anything you could find in the strangest FBI files. Throughout this thriller, Seth has plenty of help from loyal friends we’ve met in the two previous novels. These fully-developed characters add lots of humor, action, and color to the story.
We also learn more of Seth’s history, and what we learn packs a wallop as hard as a George Foreman shot to the ribs.

There were some scenes that just blew me away because of how well-written they were. One of them was an interrogation of a suspect by a female detective. I don’t believe I’ve ever read an interrogation scene so superbly drawn.

As with all of Underwood’s books, the dialogue is the cream of the crop. A lot of people consider Hemingway the master of dialogue, but he has nothing over Underwood. The dialogue here is so smooth and realistic, it could carry the story by itself.

This is another gem of a novel in the Seth Halliday series. It’s a great mystery full of humor and romance that you won’t want to put down. I can’t wait to start reading the next one in the series, “A Candy Red Christmas”. ( )