Flamingo

by Bob Reiss

On sabatical from his crime beat at the "New York Daily News," reporter Raleigh Fixx travels to the Florida Keys to write a book on a bird sanctuary and becomes the suspect in the murder investigation of a man he had just met

229 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1990

About the author

Bob Reiss (born 1951) is an American author of nonfiction and fiction books. Reiss, who also writes under the pen-names of Scott Canterbury, Ethan Black, and James Abel, has written more than a dozen books, including Purgatory Road, a murder mystery set in Antarctica, The Road to Extrema, a study of the destruction of Brazilian rain forests, and The Coming Storm, which focuses on global warming and catastrophic weather. Many of his books and articles are based on his travels to Hong Kong, Somalia, South Africa, Antarctica, and other locations around the world.

As the writer Ethan Black, Reiss has penned a series featuring Conrad Voort, a New York City police detective.

Reviews

[Zach Cross · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was alright, and I’d definitely recommend that you read it if you like the cover (not pictured here, unfortunately). The strongest aspect of the book is its setting- that is, the qualities of its setting, since I never really got a good feel for the layout of the island- most of the set pieces are fun and vibrant, and Reiss paints a great picture of a tropical island town that hides its dark secrets under layers of gaudy, brightly colored spectacle. Some of the pages took me right back to the keys and the seediness is palpable throughout. I’m having trouble distilling this highly positive aspect of the book into sentences that explain it properly, but if any of the above piques your interest, this might be a good one to check out.

That being said…
The characters seemed a little flat, only occasionally leaning out of the 2nd dimension to reveal the more complex machinery behind the somewhat cookie-cutter “stoic detective” or “crazy conspiracy theorist” or “sleazy cop” archetypes… and that’s just the men. The women are, for the majority of the book, extremely one-note and usually unimportant, unless they’re trying to get freaky with our man Raleigh. Not the best, but unfortunately seems to come with the territory. The plot was fun, and a lot of the twists worked. The dry humor wasn’t laugh-out-loud material, but kept the pace up and did a lot to balance the tone of the book. The ending was satisfying and properly corrupt in keeping with the book’s tone, but a few loose ends leave questions lingering after the last page (and not in the “wondering about a sequel” way- more along the lines of “now what was that doing in there?”)

Overall a pretty good read with a great setting. Makes me want to read something by Carl Hiaasen, I guess Florida is his specialty.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn't quite what I was expecting; more of a Carl Hiassen romp, but okay. Not a bad whodunit, the writing of the female characters left something to be desired. The book is older, and hopefully Reiss is a little more enlightened by now.