Title: Buchanan should stick to what she does best
Review: Edna Buchanan has seen it all as one of the best police reporters in the US. When she sticks to her turf of big city crime, there are few in her league, though her novels have been pretty much an on again, off again proposition.But in Garden of Evil, Buchanan decides she wants to join the James W. Hall and Carl Hiassen school of whacked out Florida Palm Noir crime novels, and falls flat. The story is ludicrous, and the killer is stupid, yet manages to outsmart-- not to mention outshoot and out drive the whole of Florida law enforcement. Especially irritating is Buchanan's awful cracker dialect she gives any character with a Southern accent.She also turns Brit Montero into a passive, whimpering wimp this time out, making her almost inconsequencial to the capture of the killer. Buchanan is a good writer, but this is a complete failure, despite the occasional insighful paragraph or anecdote here and there.
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