A review by johnnyb1954
The Gray and Guilty Sea by Jack Nolte, Scott William Carter

2.0

Gage finds a young woman dead on the beach and begins to investigate. When he’s about to give up, someone leaves him a message saying “THER AR OTHR GRLS”. A couple pages later the message is changed to “He has other girls”. I thought of stopping right there. I also thought of stopping when the “blonde bombshell” young reporter falls for this crusty old guy just because that’s the story the author fantasized. I almost quit when it turns out Gage’s ex-FBI agent buddy has followed him to this tiny town to keep an eye on him and conveniently still has connections to get information to move the investigation along. I finally quit when when the reporter, demanding a date with Gage threatened him “if he left now, she'd write a lengthy piece in the Bugle about transsexuals living in seclusion in their hometown and she'd make him the centerpiece.” It is meant to be light humor but it’s offensive. I skipped to the end of the book and was not sorry. I hadn’t missed any great writing.