James Fontana

Naples Nocturne James Fontana

As the new P. I. on Florida's Southwest Coast, Banger Maine's unorthodox investigation techniques keep him at home among the palms, wealth and warm Gulf breezes of ritzy Naples, with necessary side-trips over to Key West, Miami's Calle Ocho and the Dry Tortugas as he strives to identify the unlikely killer of wealthy philanthropist Mike Gladwin. Hired by the victim's alluring niece-heiress, Monica Gladwin, he survives her attempts at seduction while his pain-in-the-neck, uninvited side-kick, news-hen Jennie Jordan, tells him why he is wrong about nearly everything. Jennie is miffed until he tells her about his off-the-wall theory- the Presumption Against Evidentiary Tautology. As Banger said to her: "I never was the slam-bam Phillip Marlowe or Sam Spade types anyway."