When I was a young girl, I would go out on deep sea fishing boats with my father and brother. On one such trip, one of the crew snagged a bonito and handed his pole to me to reel in. I was used to catching mackerel, but mackerel don't fight like bonito. Bonito fight like the dickens, and tend to dash under the boat and around it, so that you have to keep moving around the boat as you reel in the line to keep it from breaking . . . I did bring it in, and to this day, nearly 40 years later, it remains my most exciting moment as a fisherman.

So imagine my delight when Big Numbers by Jack Getze (a book I learned about at Reviewed by Liz) starts out with the following:

"'You said you've never been deep-sea fishing, Austin, so I'm guessing you don't know dick about giant bluefin. But when you were a kid, jigging off that pier in California, did you ever hook up with a two or three-pound bonito? . . . Remember how hard those bonito fought, the way they bent the rod near double?'"

We don't know who's asking the question, but we do know he intends to send Austin Carr to a watery grave. Back up three weeks, and for the rest of the book we meet many, many people who are actively trying to kill Austin and a few more who might like to. His ex-wife won't let him see his kids because he owes her $58,000 in back support, his insane client who just took a bath on some junk bonds wants to kill him, his boss has him in his cross-hairs, and a stranger with a goatee won't go away. Add in an ailing rich guy, a hot redhead and Mexican bartender, and you have about half of the cast of characters. The book is fast paced and fun, and I finished it in a few reading sessions. I was taken by pleasant surprise in learning whodunit, and look forward to reading Getze's next book.