Raw Deal A Novel

John Deal, hero of the acclaimed Done Deal, returns to battle a suave, ruthless Cuban emigre leader who’ll use anything – fascist politics, shady financing, even murder – to profit from the Free Cuba movement. Raw Deal’s breakneck pace, off-kilter characters, and intoxicating South florida backdrop prove that Standiford is one of today’s best thriller writers. After the harrowing events of Done Deal, John Deal is back on his feet. He’s restoring homes ruined by Hurricane Andrew and finishing up his fourplex in Little Havana. Then one night Deal’s idyll is shattered when he and his wife, Janice, wake up surrounded by flames. Their apartment is gutted, and though they escape with their lives, both are burned, Janice horribly so. At first Deal is racked with guilt, thinking that his design or the building of the fourplex caused the fire. But soon the suspicions of ex-cop Vernon Driscoll point Deal toward a far more sinister cause. Vicente Luis Torreno is a major player in South Florida’s emigre community, a man who has sold his followers the dream of returning to a free Cuba and the need to do anything to make that dream come true. Torreno has his own dream – one that belies the lofty goals of his compatriots. Deal has unwittingly stumbled in the way of that dream and on to evidence that Torreno is using his followers’ donations and a power base extending to the highest levels of the U.S. government to corner the sugar market. Torreno will happily eliminate anyone, including Deal, who threatens his grandiose scheme. With Driscoll’s aid, Deal sets out to topple the mighty Torreno and set this raw deal right.