No Regrets, Coyote (2013)

Buy on Amazon
Buy at Barnes & Noble
Buy at Books and Books
Buy at Bookshop

"If Raymond Chandler were reincarnated as a novelist in south Florida, he couldn't nail it any better than John Dufresne."—Carl Hiaasen

On Christmas Eve in Eden, Florida, Wylie "Coyote" Melville, therapist and forensic consultant, is summoned to a horrific crime scene. Five members of the Halliday family have been brutally killed. Wylie's rare talent is an ability to read a crime scene, consider the evidence seen and unseen, and determine what's likely to have happened. The police are soon convinced that the deaths were a murder-suicide carried out by a broken and desperate Chafin Halliday, but Wylie's not so sure.

As Wylie begins his own investigation with the help of his friend Bay Lettique—a poker-playing sleight-of-hand artist with links to the Everglades County underworld—he discovers a web of corruption involving the police union, Ponzi-scheming lawyers, county politicians, and the Russian mob. What follows is a heart-stopping, edgy novel that introduces a completely original crime solver.

"Takes noir fiction and slivers it with shards of humor, ironic insight, and an almost hallucinogenic specificity. This is lean and honest storytelling that is as moving as it is engaging. Read this book. Believe me, you'll have no regrets!"
― Andre Dubus III, author of Townie and House of Sand and Fog

"Touching, nervy, richly detailed, and populated with a cast of characters who are utterly unique and terrifyingly real. Its humor is abundant and warm-hearted, and its detective hero is unlike any we've ever met before. American crime fiction has just gotten a lot more interesting."
― James W. Hall

"Hilariously dark . . . brings to mind the work of such masters as Donald Westlake and Elmore Leonard. It's a lurid pleasure from beginning to end."
― Tom Perrotta

"Sit back, put a cooler of beer by your chair, and settle in, you'll be here awhile: No Regrets, Coyote is impossible to close."
― Tom Franklin

"Nelson DeMille meets Carl Hiassan, and the result (like the ending) is totally satisfying."
― James Grippando

"Ghoulishly funny. . . . Dufresne is an original talent."
― Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

"John Dufresne has created a unique and compelling sleuth in Wylie “Coyote” Melville. His quirky adventures will keep you reading."
― James O. Born, author of the Bill Tasker series