An Ice Cold Paradise

When Valerie Sabatino arrives at his home on Oahu, the last thing Harry Pines wants is missing-persons action. There are two reasons why Harry's not the kind of guy who knocks on doors looking for business with his hat in his hand, and the other one is he doesn't wear a hat.

But when he learns the missing person is the son of Harry's long-ago cellmate, he has no choice but to strap it on. Helping friends is how Harry pays back. It also doesn't hurt that Valerie is the kind of woman who could bring drool to a statue's chin. Harry's only human.

In AN ICE COLD PARADISE Harry and his handy band of friends in Chicago and Hawaii peel back the curtain on a world of runaway girls turned into hookers and of soldiers paying off their gambling debts by stealing firearms. The stolen goods are used to fuel the mean little army of a loony Mormon Fundamentalist named Orrin Massey, who thinks he's the "One Mighty and Strong" right out of the original Mormon playbook.

Before it ends, Harry has fallen hard for Valerie and doesn't take kindly to it when Massey kidnaps her for one of his wives. No, not kindly at all. Harry can bring a lot of pain when he gets in a bad mood. If he has to put together a small army of his own and lead them to a mountaintop redoubt in northern Idaho to get Valerie back and settle the score, the degree of difficulty makes it all the sweeter.

Harry Pines is the enormously entertaining creation of Terry Holland, who arrives here walking in the footsteps of Hammett, Chandler, Spillane, MacDonald, and Parker.