O'Clair is a retired Detroit homicide investigator who has moved to Florida with Virginia, his girlfriend. Together, they own and operate a motel in Pompano Beach. Virginia is much younger than O'Clair, completely drop dead gorgeous and quite the female version of a handyman. There doesn't seem to be anything that she cannot fix, which works out well for O'Clair. They're happy and loving their life together.
That is until the morning that O'Clair discovers a lovely young woman sleeping in one of his lounge chairs on the beach just in front of his motel. He goes to wake her and discovers that her sleep is of the permanent kind. She has been murdered.
A second girl is murdered pretty soon after this first one and O'Clair is sure that someone is trying to get his attention. The method of these murders is very similar to an old case he had worked in Detroit years ago. He knows that's where he has to go to get to the root of things. Hating to leave Virginia alone; he travels back to his home state of Michigan to put this to rest.
What neither he nor Virginia realize is that she is now very much on the killer's radar and is in danger of being the next victim. Although O'Clair didn't leave Florida without putting some protection in place for Virginia just to be safe; it may not be enough.
I love the characters in EYES CLOSED TIGHT! O'Clair and Virginia have the most amazing relationship and are wonderful together! I would love to read more books with these two characters as the stars.
Peter Leonard is the son of the well-known and very talented late writer Elmore Leonard. It is quite easy to see that the son inherited the father's ability to spin a great yarn, so to speak. This was written with the perfect amount of suspense and humanity. There were amusing moments as well as some of the most hair-raising suspense that I've enjoyed in any book.
In addition, when everything is explained, your head just might twirl around on your shoulders. EYES CLOSED TIGHT carries some of the most highly intricately woven twists that you will never see the end coming. It is so easy to get caught up in the plot that you will feel as if you are right there with O'Clair as he examines old files, questions suspects old and new, and works with his ex-partner to catch the murderer.
EYES CLOSED TIGHT is the perfect book to read on the beach during the summer or on a rainy night by the fire.
O'Clair is a former Detroit homicide investigator who now
owns a motel in Pompano Beach, Florida in his retirement. He
runs the place with his much younger girlfriend, Virginia,
who's a knockout and can fix anything. One morning, heβs
cleaning up after the previous nightβs partiers when he sees
a lovely young woman stretched out asleep on a lounge chair.
He shakes her gently. Then he touches her neck and feels for
a pulse. There isn't one. Her skin is cold, body starting to
stiffen, definitely in the early stages of rigor.
When a second girl is murdered, O'Clair knows someone is
trying to send him a message. The way the girls are killed
reminds O'Clair of a case he investigated years earlier. Now
convinced the Pompano murders are related, O'Clair returns
to Detroit Police Homicide to review the murder file and try
to figure out what he might have missed.
And when Virginia is kidnapped by the killer, the stakes
grow exponentially higher.
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