Where Is Joe Merchant?

 

By Jimmy Buffett

So it is believed that Joe Merchant, famous singer, died by suicide. But people keep claiming to have seen him. Joe's sister, Trevor, gets a message from a psychic who insists she come to an island in the Caribbean because the psychic is sure Joe is alive and nearby.

So Trevor turns to her old ex-lover, Frank Bama, a small-time pilot, and talks him into flying her down to this island. But on his way down to meet her, Frank gets hijacked by a crazy mercenary who bails out of Frank's plane over the ocean leaving Frank tied up and doomed. (He survives.) 

Meanwhile Trevor gets angry because Frank is late for their rendezvous and she ends up getting kidnapped by a different crazy mercenary. She gets tied up and tossed into the ocean to her certain doom for reasons to convoluted to go into here (she survives). 

Frank and Trevor finally find each other and the psychic and sure enough Joe Merchant is not as dead as everyone thought. But there is no happy reunion. 

I didn't care for this book. There are too many characters, too much going on, too many villains and hatefulness. And the mystical stuff spoiled what I thought was going to be a straight up mystery story. Magic scepters, talking dolphins, messages from outer space, fools who believe in that silliness, ugh. Plus the story was just too chaotic. And too much small plane mechanical stuff. He goes on for pages about the plane's mechanical problems or whatever. I just skipped those pages.

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.