It is, perhaps, damning with faint praise, but for a great summer read you can’t do much better than Austinite Darryl Wimberley’s Dead Man’s Bay: A Case for Barrett Raines (Thomas Dunne Books). When we find the detective wrapping himself around a cold beer at 7:45 of a workday morning, we know fortune has not smiled on the favorite son of Deacon Beach, Florida. His life is a shambles until a dead-ended murder investigation leads him on a slow climb back to the land of the living. Dead Man’s Bay is as comfortable and quirky as family but with sass and wit. If you don’t love Raines, put two fingers on your wrist and check your pulse.
