Scorcher » (Unabridged)

John Lutz is the author of more than thirty novels and two hundred short stories, and is a past president of Mystery Writers of America and Private Eye Writers of America. He is the recipient of the Edgar Award, Shamus Award, and the Trophee 813 Award for best mystery short story collection translated into the French language. Lutz is the author of two private eye series. He divides his time between homes in St. Louis, Missouri, and Sarasota, Florida.

Scorcher, the fourth book in a series that includes Tropical Heat, Flame and Kiss, again features Florida private detective Fred Carver. A serial killer is on the loose, a maniac wielding a homemade flame thrower fashioned from a scuba tank. He has murdered three people - and one of them is Carver's eight-year-old son.

Carver will do anything to find his son's killer and exact a father's revenge. All clues point to the brilliant schizophrenic son of one of Florida's wealthiest families, and when the suspect goes on the run, Carver sets out to hunt him down.

A gripping story of long-buried secrets and burning hate, Scorcher is a taut, explosive and thoroughly unforgettable mystery.

Library Journal

Someone is going around Orlando, Florida incinerating people with a homemade flame thrower. Drawn into the affair by personal tragedy, Carver, ex-cop turned private eye, begins checking into the killings and soon learns that all evidence points to Paul Kave, the son of a very wealthy and influential man. Scorcher is a well- written, meticulously constructed, gripping tale and a worthy successor to Tropical Heat (1986), in which Carver made his first appearance. JV