Pirate Trade

Charlie "Doc" Adams Mystery #8

by Rick Boyer

When Doc Adams buys a purse adorned with genuine carved ivory for his wife Mary, he unknowingly purchases a ticket into the underworld of modern-day piracy. In this case, the treasure is the precious ivory of endangered elephants and walruses, and the plunderers are part of a ruthless multimillion dollar international poaching operation.
When Mary's sharp eye detects that the ivory on her purse is ill-gotten, U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents deputize her to help carry out a sting operation. But while Mary plays a dangerous secret-agent game, Doc finds himself fingered as the prime suspect in the murder of an illicit ivory dealer, and becomes the prime target of the smugglers' most murderous henchmen . . . .
"Boyer is up there with the the Parkers, the Higginses, and the Macdonalds."
-- The Boston Globe

267 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 28, 1994

About the author

A pseudonym used by Richard L Boyer.

Series:
* Charlie "Doc" Adams Mystery

Awards:
Edgar Award
◊ Best Novel (1983): Billingsgate Shoal

Reviews

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#8 in the Doc Adams series. This is the penultimate entry in a series of 9 intelligently written novels published between 1982 and 1998. Fans of the late mystery writer William G. Tapply may recall that he would frequently have his fly-fishing sleuth, Boston attorney Brady Coyne meet Doc Adams to go fishing. This is one of my most missed series.

Doc Adams buys an expensive lightship purse for his wife, Mary. She suspects the decoration on it is illegally traded ivory and winds up involved in an undercover investigation for the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service with an old friend of Doc's. When they both disappear, Doc and mercenary Roantis Laitis investigate.

[Faye · Rating 3 out of 5]

This author was my college adivsor/professor (taught writing). Pretty good books-- I like the characters.

[Tommyb]

Fiction