Saint Lolita

THE SETUP: Private-Eye Dino LaStanza meets with his friend FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the New Orleans Field Office where he is asked to assist in the recovery of the largest red diamond every discovered, stolen by the Nazis and currently on the small Caribbean island of Saint Lolita. THE PLAN: LaStanza goes to the island with a fake wife, FBI Special Agent Marisa Vecchio, a movie star Virna Lisi look-a-like, all blond hair, pretty face, sleek body and mischief in her blue eyes. He's to lure out a girl he knew a few years back, a girl suspected of purloining the diamond. Donna Maria Diaz was 17 when LaStanza worked her father's murder case and she fell for LaStanza. She is in hiding and will seek him out once she learns he's on Saint Lolita. Yeah. Right. THE COMPLICATION: LaStanza's not about to go, doesn't give a damn about a lost diamond until his wife's father, Alexandre Louvier, steps into the conference room. The nearly-priceless diamond is owned by the Louvier family and since it's a family matter - well, that's a different thing. SAINT LOLITA is a lush, green Caribbean isle, western-most of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles. There are friendly constables, unfriendly European thugs, nude beaches, howler monkeys, the rising lust from steamy days and carnal evenings. With the occasional dead body, LaStanza's back where he belongs - investigating homicides. SAINT LOLITA is the ninth novel in the LaStanza New Orleans Police / Private Eye Series. The previous novel in the series, THE LONG COLD, was a finalist for the Private Eye Writers of America SHAMUS Award.