Powder Burn

After witnessing the death of two of his friends, caught in the cross-fire of drug traffickers, Chris Meadows becomes a decoy for the police and a target of the drug lords\nFrom Library Journal\nPublished in 1984, 1981, and 1982, respectively, these novels feature action, intrigue, violence, and murder. In the Hitchcock vein, they also portray protagonists who are just ordinary people?a professor, an architect, and a fishing-boat captain?who are dragged into extraordinary circumstances. LJ's reviewer found Death in China "tautly written," adding that Montalbano and Hiaasen have a "fine flair for characters and settings" (LJ 4/1/84).
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.\nFrom the Inside Flap\nArchitect Chris Meadows has the bad luck to see an old girlfriend get hit by a car full of drugland hitmen. He has the worse luck to see the face of her murderers. Because in a town as violent as Miami, a witness doesn't stand a chance--especially when the cops who ought to be protecting him are more interested in dangling him as live bait.\nFrom the Back Cover\nA shadowy operator decides to put a lock on South Florida's cocaine trade, and Miami is suddenly transformed into a war zone as bloodily anarchic as Beirut. Chris Meadows has the bad luck to see an old girlfriend die in the crossfire. He has the worse luck, to see the face of her murderers. Because in a town as violent as Miami, a witness doesn't stand a chance - especially when the cops who ought to be protecting him are more interested in dangling him as live bait.