Walking Money by James O. Born

From the Publisher

Take a cop, a con man, a shady FBI agent, the hot Florida sun, and a million in cash...and baby, it's murder.

Publishers Weekly

Putting 17 years of service with various law enforcement agencies to excellent use, Born delivers a riveting, serpentine tale of crooked cops, police politics and a $1.5-million bag of money juggled from one pair of dishonest hands to another. Duplicitous Rev. Alvin Watson and his ex-con partner, Cole Hodges, have been skimming money from Miami's Committee for Community Relief, and everyone-Hodges, a bank manager and even smarmy, rotund FBI task force officer Tom Dooley-has got his eyes on the loot. With a riot for cover, all three aim for it, but it's Dooley who walks away victorious. Then hero Bill Tasker, a Florida state cop with (surprise!) a checkered past but an honest heart, gets framed for the crime, after Dooley stashes a loot-laden satchel inside Tasker's backyard grill and then alerts vulturous media outlets. Tasker gets both the theft and a murder pinned on him while the mother lode is shuffled a few more times, ending up in Dooley's hands once again. Swirling suspicion and startling plot twists keep readers' heads spinning as Born's direct, no-nonsense prose (complete with plenty of off-color remarks) propel this novel to its bullet-ridden conclusion. This is a terrific debut. Agent, Peter Rubie. (July) Forecast: Born's been there, and it shows. This should be a hit with fans of hard-boiled crime fiction. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Law-enforcement veteran and first-time author Born has written an amusing comic crime novel. The "walking money" belongs to a Miami social organization called the Committee for Community Relief, but it's coveted by several shifty characters. The fun starts when FBI agent Tom Dooley decides to steal the money for himself while attempting to frame Bill Tasker, an officer of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Tasker is soon a suspect, which puts him in the sights of the FBI and several others who want the money. As if his plate weren't full enough, Tasker is also juggling a new romance with a female officer whose motives he questions and considering a reconciliation with his ex-wife. Many in the supporting cast are stock characters, but Tasker is a likable enough hero, and the money does plenty of walking. An enjoyable and entertaining read; fans of Randy Wayne White, Carl Hiaasen, and other Florida crime writers will snap it up. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/04.]-Craig Shufelt, Lane P.L., Oxford, OH Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

An engaging thriller debut finds an ex-con, an FBI agent, and some Miami cops going after a satchel stuffed with the stuff that dreams are made of. Newcomer Born clearly writes about what he knows, bringing to his tale 17 years of experience in law enforcement, including time with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the agency at the center of this complicated case. His protagonist, state cop Bill Tasker, is yet another man with a clouded past: a divorced father who was transferred to Miami because of a cop killing that appeared to be his doing, but really wasn't. Tasker, who can ill afford more trouble, soon finds himself a suspect in an embezzlement scheme. Cole Hodges, who really is an ex-con, has been skimming donations to Miami's Committee for Community Relief to the tune of $1.5 million. Before Hodges can make off with the money, tubby, foul-mouthed FBI agent Tom Dooley beats him to it. To frame Tasker, who's on the case, Dooley plants some of the loot in the officer's outdoor grill, and now Tasker's off the case. Before Dooley skips home free, however, he must reckon with officer Rick Bema, who's wise to Dooley's intentions. In a chilling, cop-goes-crooked scene, Bema goes for a cut of the money. The action turns into a lightweight version of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre as Hodges, Dooley, and others-all of them colorful enough to bump the narrative out of the "been there/read that" category-double-cross each other and outwit the reader all the way to a final shoot-out that's capped with a delightfully cynical twist. Born enters a crowded field with a tricky, well-paced plot and some sharply drawn characters. His style, though, is rather too straightforward: fresherdetail and a more distinctive voice would jump his work to the head of the line. Agent: Peter Rubie

What People Are Saying

John Sanford
Both enormously entertaining and enormously authentic - this is real cop stuff.... A terrific debut.

Lloyd "Bud" Wilson
This is not your ordinary police story. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. (Inspector, New York State Police (ret.))

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