Michael McClelland's debut crime caper, "Oyster Blues," was "an absolute joyride" "(Sun Sentinel, FL)." Now he returns with a one-of-a-kind comic mystery sporting a town full of characters that will really get under your skin.... Runaway rich girl Desiree Dean is "nobody's" condiment. So when she discovers her brand-new Chinese character tattoo actually reads "with hot sauce," she confronts the artist at his parlor -- and accidentally ignites an explosion that blows away half the block. It also leaves the injured Desiree in the care of a notorious lesbian clam pirate (yes, you read it right), and all of Cedar Key in an uproar. But that's the least of the problems facing the sleepy Gulf Coast fishing village. Local real estate hog Stevie McCracken is trying to get his extensive property -- recently leveled, thanks to Desiree -- re-zoned so he can put up a casino that would make him rich, everyone else miserable, and the island a tourist-trap neon nightmare. Now Desiree -- along with Cedar Key's slightly eccentric residents and a slightly alcoholic tabloid reporter -- will have to fight like hell to protect the town from big money, corrupt politics, and other scourges of civilization.
- ISBN10 0743477324
- ISBN13 9780743477321
- Publish Date 25 January 2005 (first published 19 April 2004)
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Out of Print 11 June 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Simon & Schuster
- Format Paperback (US Mass Market)
- Pages 293
- Language English