- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur; 1 edition (Mar 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312291272
- ISBN-13: 978-0312291273
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.3 x 2.9 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,834,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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11 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
well-written amateur sleuth
2 Mar 2003
Format:Hardcover
He lives in Key West and makes his living in advertising and magazine articles. His heart is in photography and he sometimes shoots crime scenes when nobody else is available. He is called in to photograph the area of Mayor Steve Gomez's death, which the police are ruling is a suicide.
There's something about the scene that makes Steve think it wasn't a suicide. Hours later, Naomi Douglas is found dead and the medical examiner rules it death by natural causes. Alex finds a strong link between Steve and Naomi, including the fact they both came from the same Indiana hometown. After pleading, cajoling and begging, Alex gets the medical examiner to do an autopsy on Naomi and they discover a massive dose of oxcodone in her bloodstream. Now Alex has to find out what these two people knew that would make somebody want to kill them and then bring that somebody to justice.
OCTOPUS ALIBI is a very clever character study as well as a well-written amateur sleuth novel. The protagonist has all the makings of a good police officer because once he catches the scent, he never stops hunting his prey. Tom Corcoran has written an intricately woven mystery that sub-genre fans will take delight in as they go crazy trying to figure out who the perpetrator is.
Harriet Klausner
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Great Fun! Key West Local Color With Hot Story Included!
2 Nov 2004
Format:Hardcover
RUN....don't walk, to your nearest book seller and beg, borrow, or steal all four of Corcoran's Alex Rutledge novels. If Octopus Alibi hooks you, as I believe it will, you'll find multiple, fun to read who-done-it enjoyment in backtracking the previous three Rutledge sleuthing forays. Good fun, "lazy days" kind of reading. Lower Keys locals and frequent visitors alike are having an absolute blast peeking throughout to see where (or, if) they've been included (surely hoping that it's not jail or the morgue), and which political folly du jour gets a subtle send up. Of course the best places to eat or have drinks in or near Key West are also brought into the storyline. Yes, I can just see myself at sunset, re-reading Octopus Alibi at the bar at Louie's Backyard now, sipping a rum soda w/Key Lime, listening to "Cuban Crimes of Passion", & peeking around the pages to see if Rutledge shows up with a lady friend. Saw a sneak paragraph or two of Corcoran's next book, so I know that one is gonna be hot stuff, too! So, get yourself "hooked" - on Octopus Alibi right away!
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
A Key West Mystery
8 Jun 2003
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Of all the major "Keys" writers, Corcoran seems least frequent in publication, and this pays off in well written novels, or at least fast moving novels. He really is fun to read. Additionally, if you are "into" Key West, he's your writer. While there are actually two trips up and down to Miami, and a couple of "off island" forays, this book is centered in and plays on the ambience of that "last place in America." Alex Rutledge, Corcoran's photographer hero, tools up and down Simonton on his Cannondale or strolls the sidewalks of Duval, avoiding the overflow from Sloppy Joe's, dodging into Captain Tony's around the corner for an early beer. Certainly the Key West life style. There are many other little treasures: remembered sidewalk restaurants, cascades of bouganvillia on corners, the ocean mist, happy hour at Hog's Breath, regularly painted empty buildings. These are the observations of someone who knows the streets over time.
Dirty deeds in this novel, surprise, are linked to real estate development and illegal immigration. The two plots work, but are not systematically linked to each other. These are mingled with the unraveling of a relationship between Rutledge and his "roomie" Teresa, that not unfrequent disaster that comes about when two decide to live as one and abandon the freedom of separate apartments. As the novel drew to a close, I had the feeling that there were three distinct stories, all joined at Alex Rutledge. Still, both mystery plots are exciting, and enough to keep anyone reading the novel awake an extra hour. The romance ends, as is common in "Keys" novels with a promise of future solace.
For those who remember the days of clearing the pier of ships for sunset, or "tank" island (before the "condofying" of the island perimeter) wise contemporaries who bought Conch cottages for a song seem just a little long in the tooth. Such folk, also, have to be in their mid to late fifties and for we less lucky mortals self-knowledge forms plausability questions. One bit of K.W. zaniness, which someone eventually will seriously propose is a developer's Malory Square Dome with recorded projected sunsets to allow tourists to view the ten best in history. No mention of a guaranteed green flash, however.
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