Customer Reviews

Water Hazard

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Huck Doyle is an attorney who does not practice law nor make much income as a PGA pro. Instead he earns money as a private investigator based in Los Angeles.

As a favor to his son Rick who went to law school with Huck, wealthy banker Sing Ten Wong obtains a slot in the Sony Open in Hawaii. During the practice round at prestigious Waialae Country Club, an assailant shoots Sing Ten in the back, murdering Huck's affluent patron. The shot seemed to come from out of the ocean. Rick asks Huck to investigate as he believes professionals were hired to murder his father due to a bank merger deal. Huck makes inquires that lead to someone telling him to drop his investigation before he is buried in a sand trap.

The latest Doyle golf investigation (see A Tight Lie) is an entertaining but thin sports mystery that focuses much more on the game than the murder and its financial motive. Huck is a fascinating character struggling to get back on the tour, but realizing he better not give up his day job. Although the denouement feels like a bogie, golf fans will enjoy Water Hazard as the protagonist will need to putt his way to the greens as his foes use irons to prevent his solving the case.

Harriet Klausner

I have admired Don Dahler's work as a network correspondent and remember him reporting from the World Trade Center on September 11th. I picked up his novel at the library because it was labeled as a mystery. The mystery part of the story could have been done as a short story. Most of the book was about the main character's golf game. I play golf, but I find it boring when someone wants to detail his/her round and I would never do so. Dahler also gives a lot of detail to an afternoon of surfing. I don't think his Dahler's research was what I would expect from a reporter of his caliber. He mentioned The Wide World Of Golf, which hasn't been around for a long time. He also mentioned exemptions for the professional golfers who win tournaments. One of the tournaments he mentions is the British Open which, he said, gives the winner a 10 year exemption. The winner of the British Open gets an exemption for every year until he turns 60. The "hero" of the story, Huck Doyle, is given courtesy cars from the golf tournament, which the bad guys trash. I have been a volunteer at several tournaments and the courtesy cars were not given to the golfers, they were used to pick up and transport the players from hotel to course. Instead of reading this book, I should have read GOLF DIGEST.