Paperback: "Double Dealer" by Max Allan Collins

 Paperback: CSI: Crime Scene Investigations: Double Dealer: A Novel by Max Allan Collins, 2001, 0743444043.

I saw this in a used store and figured to try it out since Collins wrote it. Skip it unless you are a fan of the show. I felt like Collins did not have enough leeway to develop the characters for anyone who is not a fan of the television program - like me. 

Collins wrote ten CSI tie-ins - 10! - and I'm going to skip the rest. He also wrote four comics, four video games and five puzzles. He must have been a CSI guru from 2000-2006. I'd give the comics a try if I run across one. 

Some most excellent Collins news is that he continues to write Quarry novels and also is working on developing the remaining notes, and scripts, and ideas Mickey Spillane left behind. I've gotten off track on both Quarry and Spillane novels and need to get to it.

Anywho. Here is the plot for Double Dealer: long-dead body is found. New people are dead. Gil Grissom and company strain my sense of disbelief and investigate the murders. A long time and mysterious killer-for-hire is discovered. All ends well with lots of overtime, exhaustion, quips, etc. No tight shirts though, that is only for television. A FBI guy who is a real a-hole.

I took this along as I chaperoned a five-day-trip with the high school band/orchestra/choir trip to Memphis and Nashville. There were two coach buses but only one day for performance. That performance was outside the welcome center at Graceland. I did not know Graceland was such a large complex. The only complaint about the trip is that we did not have enough time at each museum or tour. When you try to fit in as many places as reasonably possible you gotta deal with time restrictions.

Overall a great trip. I had plenty of energy during the trip and enough pep to walk the hotel treadmills for most evenings. Once I got home I crashed HARD.