What's so great about it? First of all, the writing style. It's economical and understated but also wry and precisely descriptive. Word quality and quantity are both perfect.

Second, plot. This has to be one of the most intricately and tirelessly plotted books I've ever encountered. All fiction is by definition contrived but we only complain about a book's being contrived when the seams show. Like we know what movie special effects are but we don't want to see the strings. Thomas is like a juggler who can keep a dozen different things in the air while also jumping rope.

So what's the story? Our first-person narrator, McCorkle, is happily married to a journalist and quite content running a restaurant in Washington, D.C. But then his bookie calls him up, explaining that one of his partners in crime was attempting a pick-up down at the docks and got jumped by two other guys.

This isn't any of McCorkle's business but a fourth man intervened on behalf of the first guy and got stabbed. When they searched him for ID, all they found was a piece of paper with McCorkle's address on it.

The mystery man turns out to Michael Padillo, an old friend, business and combat partner. McCorkle is settled down now but he used to be a man of action. Padillo never stopped, jumping from espionage to arms dealing. McCorkle hasn't seen him in a long time but they're still best friends.

It should be a pleasant reunion but, alas, the dominos start to fall now. When McCorkle brings Padillo back to his place, he finds that his wife, Fredl, has been kidnapped and the people holding her demand that Padillo assassinate their prime minister on his upcoming visit to Washington. They'd already tried to hire him for money and he'd refused. So now they're doing this.

All of this is established extremely quickly. There are many moving parts in this story and Thomas is quite nimble at getting it down on the page. His touch as a writer is dazzlingly light and assured.

McCorkle and Padillo don't kid themselves. They know that even if Padillo pulls off the assassination, McCorkle's wife will be killed. As will McCorkle and Padillo. So the idea is to play along and try to pull off a Mission: Impossible-type plan. Enlisting the bookie's gang of criminals and three extremely dangerous and untrustworthy agents that Padillo has leverage against, they'll try to locate and rescue Fredl, foil the assassination attempt and expose the guilty parties involved.

There are a lot of twists and turns and double crosses as well as satisfyingly terse treatment of action and violence. It just zips along, suspenseful and amusing in equal measure, and as much as I wanted to find out what would happen, I also didn't want it to end.

I'll be keeping an eye out for more Ross Thomas books for sure.

The first line is "The call came while I was trying to persuade a lameduck Congressman to settle his tab before he burned his American Express card".