Gasparilla Gold

Publishers Weekly

The Gasparilla Parade of Pirates, "Tampa's much smaller version of Mardi Gras," takes center stage in Vogt's third workmanlike novel (after Silicone Solution and Justice Denied) to feature Judge Wilhelmina Carson, the federal District Court judge who likes to involve herself in criminal investigations before they can reach her court. As Judge Willa adjusts to the shock of meeting her estranged father's new, very smart and attractive 23-year-old wife, who's pregnant to boot, the terminally ill husband of the judge's long-term secretary, Margaret, dies in the private social and service club operated by Willa's ex-banker husband. The police suspect Margaret did her husband in. In her efforts to protect her employee, Judge Willa uncovers Margaret's concealed past, investigates a thoroughly corrupt high-fashion jewelry designer and, with help from her father, exposes a long-term scheme of bank fraud and peculation. The author, a practicing lawyer, allows Judge Willa to put herself in several situations that most federal judges would avoid as unethical if not illegal, only some of which matter to the plot. Anyone who has ever had cause to resent a trophy wife will identify with Willa's emotional dilemma and cheer her resolution of it. (POD)