Amazon
Category:
Mystery/Suspense
Publisher: iUniverse, Inc.
ISBN-10: 0595402674
Type: Fiction
Pages: 180
ISBN-13: 9780595402670
Rolly Waters is a recovering rock musician and part-time private eye. One night his band performs at a blowout party for EyeBitz.com, a fast-rising Internet startup that has the city of San Diego talking. When Rolly returns after hours to retrieve his guitar from the host’s mansion, he finds a dead body floating in the swimming pool. His discovery sets in motion a series of intrigues that drag him into the surreal world of dot.com culture, as well as the dark heart of his own uneven past.
Rolly’s investigation leads him to a motley crew of suspicious characters that include Ricky Rogers, excitable CEO who speaks in surfer lingo; King Gibson, mysterious financier and high-stakes grifter; Curtis Vox, computer geek extraordinaire; Alesis Amati, secretary and porn rock star; Little Walter, harmonica-playing goon; and Fender Dodge, Rolly’s friend and V.P. of Mindshare for EyeBitz.com.
Black's Beach Shuffle updates the classic Southern California gumshoe world of Raymond Chandler and Ross McDonald with contemporary technology riffs, new millennium anxieties and sun-blotted humor. It pumps out a page-turning mix of plot twists, colorful characters and laugh-out-loud humor as Rolly's investigation ricochets him from the high-tech industrial parks of Torrey Pines Mesa to downtown blues clubs, from street taco shops to the penthouse of the La Jolla Hyatt, from the hallowed halls of academia to the sands of Black's Beach, San Diego's official clothing-optional playground.
Excerpt
“This is it,” Alesis said as they stopped in front of the second door, which was closed. “You can see the computer up there.” She pointed above the door, where a closed circuit T.V. monitor hung. On the screen was a fuzzy black and white picture of a plastic box, about two feet high, locked inside a metal cage. Small lights ran around the top of the cage, blinking in sequence.
“Well it looks pretty secure,” Rolly said.
“That’s only half of it,” said Fender. “The computer casing has a special ‘poison pill’ feature. If you remove the cover the whole thing explodes.”
“It explodes?” Rolly wanted to laugh. “Really?"
“That’s what they tell us. Ricky says it’s there to prevent reverse engineering.”
“Well, I guess that would do it,” Rolly said, not quite sure what reverse engineering was, but certain an exploding computer would help prevent it.
“Boys and their toys,” Alesis said, rolling her eyes again. Rolly was beginning to like her attitude almost as much as her looks.
“Can we go in?” Rolly asked.
“We can’t get in without Ricky’s security card,” Fender said. “Ricky or King has to be here.”
“Or Curtis,” Alesis said.
“Or Curtis.”
“So tell me about Curtis. What’s he like?”
Alesis and Fender glanced at each other, as if hoping the other would respond. Fender started.
“We don’t really see him that much. He’s kind of a super-geek.”
“Ricky said he was hard to get hold of. Doesn’t he come into work like everybody else?”
“No, he mostly stays out at the house,” Alesis said.
“The house?”
“The BFH,” Fender said. He looked down at the floor, twitching the dunce card between his index finger and thumb. Alesis shot an almost imperceptible glance over at Fender. There was something a little vicious in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Rolly said, “I don’t understand.” Fender looked up at him.
“The house where the party was. Curtis lives there.”
A hundred questions shot through Rolly’s brain simultaneously, creating a hot, bubbly liquid that ran down his throat and swished around in his stomach. He saw a dark shadow floating across a swimming pool. Was Curtis dead? He couldn’t be. Ricky said he had received an email from Curtis this morning. Had Curtis been at the house when Rolly found the man in the pool? He might have been.
“What does BFH mean?” Rolly said, trying to think of something to say to keep his composure. Alesis sighed.
“It means Big F------ House,” Alesis said. “Curtis likes to call it that. It’s his idea of a funny joke.”
The yoga man in the room they had passed started playing harmonica, blowing a slow, worn out blues riff in the key of B flat. The guy wasn’t half bad, but he wasn’t exactly Sonny Boy Williamson either. Fender, Alesis, and Rolly stood in the hall looking at the picture of the computer on the television monitor and the blinking lights that surrounded it, the metal box that held the secrets of Eyebitz.com, the secrets that could only be unlocked with the Magic Key.
“Well, I don’t really need to go in,” Rolly said at last. “I’m afraid it’s just a bunch of blinking lights to me.” An exploding computer wasn’t something he wanted to mess with right at the moment.
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