Book description
Max Roper is compelled to use all of his resources to stay alive long
enough to last through the mystery of The Kissing Gourami. What
starts out a fairly simple and even downgrading assignment, quickly
becomes an obsessive search for a brutal killer, leading Roper a
skill-numbing chase from Los Angeles to the glittering gambling
casinos of Las Vegas, and finally to the chilling temple of marine
biology. Max has to deal with the murder of a beautiful blonds by some
ingenious unfriendly fish, and thus meets a handsome young golf pro
with one eye out for a brunette heiress with hundred million dollars
and the other for a shapely redhead who plays with sharks for kicks;
an unforgiving acid-mouthed sports reporter; a designing matador; an
erudite marine biologist who lost a leg and gained a lifelong enmity;
a college cutie who moonlights at a tropical-fish aquarium when she
isn't out with a spear-gun killing things; a giant, hulking mad
sculptor who used logs for playthings; and over all, the creeping
menace of the vengeful animal-like first string executioner of the Las
Vegas underworld, Big Vince Geneva. The Kissing Gourami starts
when Max Roper's boss, head of the EPT security organization, assigns
him to find a ten-thousand-dollar missing dress. In this instance, Max
is motivated not merely by duty, but by the gnawing thought that he
might find a girl inside it, one whose specifications are mind-blowing
enough to warrant his putting his life on the line for it. Max finds
out what he knew before, that things are seldom what they seem, and a
person can get himself severely beat up and even killed trying to
dispute the point.
