Fred Carver

Series · 10 books · 1986-1996

By John Lutz

Books in series

Tropical Heat

1986

Tropical Heat is a first-rate detective story. Fred Carver, an Orlando cop until a gunman's bullet shattered his kneecap, acquires a cane and a new career, private investigating. From beach resorts and luxury condos, to the swamps and smuggler's coves of the Everglades, Carver looks for a man who police think committed suicide. Mysterious coincidences follow, Carver's life is threatened and he falls for his client, Edwina Talbot. Deception and confusion make the case into a maze, until bitter betrayal provided an explosive vehicle for a surprising climax.

Scorcher

1987

Scorcher, the fourth book in a series that includes Tropical Heat, Flame and Kiss, again features Florida private detective Fred Carver. A serial killer is on the loose, a maniac wielding a homemade flame thrower fashioned from a scuba tank. He has murdered three people - and one of them is Carver's eight-year-old son. Carver will do anything to find his son's killer and exact a father's revenge. All clues point to the brilliant schizophrenic son of one of Florida's wealthiest families, and when the suspect goes on the run, Carver sets out to hunt him down. A gripping story of long-buried secrets and burning hate, Scorcher is a taut, explosive and thoroughly unforgettable mystery.

Kiss

1988

A "natural death" at the Sunhaven Retirement Home may be murder, and private eye Fred Carver must outwit a smooth-talking administrator, a menacing head nurse, and a host of others determined to stop him

Flame

1989

Private detective Fred Carver becomes embroiled in another strange case. A new client in an unusual situation leaves Carver's office and gets into his car. The car explodes upon ignition and only a charred corpse remains. Identify questions develop and Carver's case turns into murder.The compelling plot twists and turns around Carver in Lutz's own masterful style.

Bloodfire

1991

Series hero PI Fred Carver guards a client's heroin-addict wife in this quick and jaunty read. At first, Robert Ghostly seems sincerely worried about Elizabeth, but Carver develops doubts after he is nearly hit by a bullet that kills Elizabeth's sister. Then he learns that his client, who is really Roberto Gomez, one of Florida's most brutal drug dealers, blames the stillbirth of a son on his wife's habit. Roberto wants revenge, but Carver wants out—until beautiful Elizabeth turns up and begs him to help her. After discovering that she was never an addict and that her son is alive, Carver altruistically agrees. Together they drive to a motel in the wilds of Florida, where Elizabeth, who is black, infuriates a pair of rednecks who then add to their problems. Fortunately for Carver and Elizabeth, Roberto is being followed by a cop. While failing to build up much suspense, Lutz ( Flame ) supplies a credible twist at the end of this absorbing tale.

Hot

1992

Private eye Fred Carver investigates the slaughter of an ex-cop, the murder of a man who was found stuffed to the gills with cocaine, and other crimes. Reprint.

Spark

1993

In John Lutz's seventh mystery of this acclaimed series, disabled Florida P.I. Fred Carver is hired by the redoubtable Hattie Evans to investigate the death of her seventy-year-old husband, Jerome. Although the doctors say he had a heart attack, an anonymous note claiming Jerome was murdered stirs Hattie's doubts about the cause of her husband's death. The Evanses lived in Solartown, one of the new breed of retirement communities catering to all the needs of its golf course, health center, grocery store, recreation facility - everything but a morgue. An ideal kind of place; that is, until Carver begins to suspect that the good people of Solartown may be dying just a bit too soon. Is the community really as benign as it appears on the surface, or does it harbor a very methodical killer? Another death brings Carver and Hattie tragically closer to the secrets hidden within the seemingly serene, pastel-colored walls of Solartown's homes. But a torturous encounter with a sadistic and homicidal addict and a shattering series of events tell Carver that a conspiracy of good intentions and corporate greed may be to blame - and may also be the end of him.

Torch

1994

Disabled Florida private detective Fred Carver takes the case of a married woman who wants him to follow her and her lover, only to have his client commit suicide, her husband kill himself, and her lover disappear. 10,000 first printing.

Burn

1995

In the ninth mystery in the critically acclaimed series, disabled Florida P.I. Fred Carver takes on what may be his most ambiguous and baffling case yet. His new client, Joel Brandt, reminds him of the handsome and deceptively charming mass murderer Ted Bundy - and that's the least disquieting aspect of the case. Brandt has been charged with stalking Marla Cloy, a woman he claims he's never met, and he hires Carver to find out why she's falsely accusing him. At his wit's end, Brandt is convinced she's out to get him so she can kill him, claiming self-defense. But why? When Carver can find no connection between the two and no reason for either's vengeance, he begins to wonder who is stalking whom and finds himself caught in the middle of a deadly game of cat and mouse. A personal crisis that takes Carver and the reader by surprise rounds out this tense and complicated tale.

#10

Lightning

1996

Disabled Florida P.I. Fred Carver faces the most painful case of his career when his lover is injured in a bomb blast that kills two abortion clinic workers, and Carver must discover whether the bomb was the work of a religious zealot, or a personal vendetta.

Author

John Lutz

Author · 48 books

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. John Lutz has captivated suspense enthusiasts for over four decades. He has been one of the premier voices in contemporary hard-boiled fiction. His work includes political suspense, private eye novels, urban suspense, humor, occult, crime caper, police procedural, espionage, historical, futuristic, amateur detective, thriller; virtually every mystery sub-genre. John Lutz published his first short story in 1966 in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and has been publishing regularly ever since. He is the author of more than fifty novels and 250 short stories and articles. His novels and short fiction have been translated into virtually every language and adapted for almost every medium. He is a past president of both Mystery Writers of America and Private Eye Writers of America. Among his awards are the MWA Edgar, the PWA Shamus, The Trophee 813 Award for best mystery short story collection translated into the French language, the PWA Life Achievement Award, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Golden Derringer Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the author of two private eye series, the Nudger series, set in his home town of St. Louis, and the Carver series, set in Florida, as well as many non-series suspense novels. His SWF SEEKS SAME was made into the hit movie SINGLE WHITE FEMALE, starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and his novel THE EX was made into the HBO original movie of the same title, for which he co-authored the screenplay. Lutz and his wife, Barbara, split their time between St. Louis and Sarasota, Florida.