James David Buchanan Moon & Muldoon

Moon & Muldoon

James David Buchanan

Five Star, Dec 2003, $25.95, 268 pp.

ISBN: 1594140731

Everyone who lives on Key West wonders how acerbic Casey Moon and amiable Max Muldoon can be partners. The Conch Republic residents adore Max and despise Casey including Casey's wife. Perhaps only his two preschoolers too young to realize what a grouch Casey truly is like him. Their business Moon & Muldoon, Inc Retrieval Service usually recovers stolen planes is in deep financial trouble especially since their last repossession, a kidnapped racing horse taken to Mexico, committed suicide by jumping off their plane.

Max fell in love when he saw the woman, who oozed wealth staring at him from a taxi. Later, she offers the M&M boys $25, 000 now, all expenses paid, and $25, 000 more if successful in regaining her stole her plane and four year old son from her divorced husband. Casey cynically tells her to get lost, but Max, still in love, agrees to do the job. However, neither Casey nor Max knows that they are about to become transporters taking felons who stole from organized crime to a so-called haven, but no place is safe from the mob.

MOON AND MULDOON satirizes the screwball South Florida, especially Key West wacky thrillers. The story line never takes itself seriously even when the two protagonists struggle to remain alive. Like the support cast, readers will enjoy the antics of "swashbuckling Muldoon and hiss at Casey who fires his partner every time they are in trouble, which is often. Though the story line is played too loose as the humor overwhelms the suspense, fans of parodies will take immense delight in James David Buchanan's spoof.

Harriet Klausner