Only days before his death, an agent for the Federal Reserve had been executed in a motel room a couple hundred miles from Taylor’s town of Rio Cresta. There is no apparent link between the two deaths, and even less so when Taylor’s is ruled a suicide.

Months later, Dane Rudd appears as an invited guest to the Memorial Service for Taylor Green. Taylor’s father Nathan and his significant other Ivy use the service as a kick-off for a lifetime memorial to Taylor, that of a huge organ transplant center. Dane is there because he received the corneas from the Greene family.

Nathan is assisted in this financial venture by his Vietnam buddy General Merrit Hand, who was also Taylor’s godfather. General Hand controls large amounts of money in the California banking world and is now functioning through his son-in- law, Charles Gill. Hand is dying of emphysema and his son-in law has greedily taken over the reins of power.

Another ally is the D.A. Roy Pinter; a polio victim helped at all levels by his first assistant “Flesh” or Francie. Roy as well as the most of the rest of the men lust after Essie who is also Nathan’s administrative assistant.

These are most of the major players, although it takes far to long to identify them since the author seems to go out of his way to avoid describing them with any depth. After the funeral Essie overhears Nathan and Ivy talking about whether or not Taylor could have discovered something. So not believing in the suicide theory but persuaded that Taylor was murdered, she starts collecting copies of every piece of paper going through Nathan’s office.

Finally she and Dane meet and join forces to discover the truth. Dane’s motivation is always in question. Superficially, he attributes it to repaying the gift of vision. The story line is complicated as it of course involves money, murder, deceit, etc. It is also difficult to follow at times because no effort is made to have scenes flow into one another. In fact the abrupt changes are jarring and make for a very choppy journey through prose.

But parts of The Prince of Deadly Weapons are beautifully written, with the mythological theme focused on the labyrinth. Since the bottom line seems to be the search for redemption, the parallel is an obvious one.

The book is a surprise because few mysteries, thrillers, or suspense stories are as lyrical or philosophical as this one...if only the characters were better developed, and, if only it were not such an uneven read.

--Thea Davis