Hour of the Manatee
by Gene Ayres
ISBN: 978-1-935444-08-4
Return of the hip detective Tony Lowell!
Check out http://www.geneayres.org/
Reviewed in the Seattle Times!
Floatplan.com is a fan of Gene Ayres!
Tony Lowell's on the case again. In Hour of the Manatee, the justice-bound private investigator faces an integral aspect of his past and makes a shocking discovery while trying to solve a twenty-five year old murder mystery of the rich playboy, Henry Hartley. It all begins with a phone call. In time, Lowell meets an imbalanced housekeeper who meets her untimely demise, but not before slipping Lowell a seemingly innocuous photograph that isn't innocuous at all, but a piece of incriminating evidence. The implications of the photograph send Lowell deeper into peril where he encounters more deaths at the hands of an unknown but brutal murderer.
Gene Ayres pens another thrilling mystery. Hour of the Manatee is a fast-read and a masterfully written brainteaser that keeps you guessing as to who the actual murderer could be until the last page. Ayres conjures a protagonist who is multi-faceted and not immune to the pitfalls of life. But it is within the pitfalls that Tony Lowell shines the most. It is inevitable that readers will fall in love with Tony Lowell the character, but they will fall in love with Tony Lowell, the man as well.
For thrills, an un-put-downable mystery, and a spine-chilling murderer, I encourage everyone to read Hour of the Manatee. I guarantee it will deliver on all counts.
---Khusboo Rana
Other books by Gene Ayres:
The Tony Lowell Mysteries, published by St. Martin's Press NY
(writing as "E.C. Ayres")
Hour of the Manatee, 1994, Winner of the St. Martin's Press/Private Eye Writers of America Best First Private Eye Novel competition 1992, revised edition by World Audience Publishers NY 2009
Cry of the Heron, published by World Audience Publishers NY 2009
Eye of the Gator, 1995, revised edition by World Audience Publishers NY 2009
Night of the Panther, 1997, revised edition by World Audience Publishers NY 2009
Lair of the Lizard, 1998, revised edition by World Audience Publishers NY 2009
Nonfiction:
A Billion to One: An American Insider in the New China First Edition by World Audience Publishers NY 2009
.
| 
