Crash Course [Mass Market Paperback]

Kathy Hogan Trocheck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 1998

Murder gets a green light

When Jackleen Canaday's newly bought dream machine--an '88 Corvette T-top--turns out to be a lemon, senior sleuth Truman Kicklighter comes to her aid. As they head for the dealership, they're spoiling for a fight but they're completely unprepared for what they find: the corpse of the man who sold Jackleen her clunker.

More than his passion for justice drives Truman to unmask the killer--the cops suspect Jackleen of murder. Truman goes undercover at the devious dealership and discovers a bloody trail of insurance fraud and drug money. That trail could lead him to the great showroom in the sky.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Retired reporter Truman Kicklighter, flushed with the success of his first adventure (Lickety-Split), once again breaks out of the Fountain of Youth Residential Hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida. Almost immediately he finds himself up to his neck in hot water as he and a young woman who works at the rest home track down a used car scam that soon becomes deadly. Blessedly, there's nothing cute about Kathy Trocheck's creation-here is a senior citizen who is as crotchety as he is smart. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Retired journalist Truman Kicklighter, who lives in St. Petersburg's Fountain of Youth Residential Hotel, revs up his investigative abilities when a sleazy (but nice-looking) used-car salesman unloads a lemon on his good friend Jackie. When Jackie complains, strange things happen: someone steals the car, and the salesman winds up dead. Although warned away, Kicklighter goes undercover, gathering evidence of insurance fraud and murder. Although the book is set in Florida heat and Highway 19 congestion, Trocheck (Heart Trouble, HarperCollins, 1996) keeps readers cool with lively wit, memorable characters, and cutting prose. A great read.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: HarperTorch (April 8, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061091723
• ISBN-13: 978-0061091728
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,318,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kathy Hogan Trocheck has published 17 novels, 10 critically-acclaimed mysteries under her own name and seven other bestselling novels writing as Mary Kay Andrews.

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, Trocheck earned a B.A. in journalism from the University of Georgia in 1976. She started her professional journalism career in Savannah, Georgia, where she covered the real-life murder trials which were the basis of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. She left journalism after a ten-year stint as a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Her first book, Every Crooked Nanny, featuring a clever, snoopy housecleaner named Callahan Garrity, appeared in 1992. It was followed by seven other Garrity novels including To Live and Die in Dixie (1993), Homemade Sin (1994), Happy Never After (1995), Heart Trouble (1996), Strange Brew (1997), Midnight Clear (1998), and Irish Eyes (2000). The two Truman Kicklighter novels were Lickety Split (1996) and Crash Course (1997).

The first novel to be published under the name Mary Kay Andrews was Savannah Blues (2002). It was followed by Little Bitty Lies (2003); Hissy Fit (2004); the New York Times bestseller, Savannah Breeze (2006); the New York Times bestseller, Blue Christmas (2007); Deep Dish (2008); and the New York Times bestseller, The Fixer Upper (2009).

Her mysteries have been nominated for the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, and Macavity Awards.

As a lifelong "junker" the author claims to know the location of every promising thrift store, flea market, and junkpile in the southeastern United States, plus many parts of Ohio.

She is a frequent lecturer and writing teacher at workshops including Emory University, The University of Georgia's Harriet Austin Writer's Workshop, the Tennessee Mountain Writer's Workshop, and the Antioch Writer's Workshop. Her mysteries have been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha and Macavity Awards.

Married to her high school sweetheart, she is the mother of two grown children and a proud grandmother. After a brief hiatus in Raleigh, NC, she and her husband moved back to their old neighborhood in Atlanta, where they live in a restored 1926 Craftsman bungalow. She divides her time between Atlanta and her restored beach cottage on Tybee Island, GA.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good sexagerian, October 24, 2000

By 

D. P. Birkett (Suffern, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Crash Course (Mass Market Paperback)

Unlike the Garrity books this is a thriller not a mystery. We know who did the murder from the beginning and we are given some of the story from the viewpoint of the villains. Kicklighter and Jackleen are great characters and there's much insight into being a retired male and someone living on minimum wage. The Fountain of Youth Hotel and Bondurant Motors are well done. My trouble was with the villains - well they're fairly good villains but three other Florida thriller-writers have given us great villains. I kept comparing this with Leonard's "Maximum Bod" and Hiaasen's "Striptease" and Willeford's "Miami Blue." I know they were set on the opposite coast but it's all one state to me. The car talk was good but Seranella does it better. Making these comparisons knocked off a star but this is excellent page-turning entertainment. Did they ever open the trunk of the pink Cadillac?