Corpse on a Swing

Pepe Montecarlo is a lucky man, and he knows it. Witness his goofy, ever-present grin, slapstick demeanor, absurd attempts at humor.

In Laurel Traeger, he has a gorgeous, funny, black mistress. Together, they cut a wide swathe through the Texas Hill Country's swinger "lifestyle," leaving a trail of satisfied smiles in their wake.

A retired business journalist who bet smartly on The Big Short in the Great Recession, Pepe's vocation is keeping up with his beloved Nubian Queen. He runs 30 miles a week, shoots bull's eyes with a pocket pistol, drives a classic Corvette.

Pepe has friends, too: a giant, brilliant criminal lawyer and former University of Texas fullback nicknamed "Deuce and a Half"; Laurel's sister, "Tuffy," a sheriff's deputy and kick-ass dominatrix; smart, gentle Rex and sexy insatiable Mimi Vega, the first couple Pepe and Laurel played with after becoming lovers.

During a date with Rex and Mimi at a rowdy swinger nudist resort, Rex and Mimi turn up dead. Chief suspects: Pepe and Laurel.

The hearts of other friends and lovers stop beating. Pepe and Laurel's suspect cred rises, despite Tuffy's belief in their innocence.

Then somebody starts targeting Pepe and Laurel.

Pepe will need to learn, as old Blue Eyes said, if "Luck Be a Lady" one fateful night.

Imagine Dashiell Hammett's Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man) leaping from the 1930s to the high-tech, sexually liberated 21^st century, where seduction, humor, sarcasm, brains, grit and a facility with firearms remain as indispensable as ever.