"Merriment, mayhem and a plot that really keeps you guessing" from the
Grand Master of Mystery and author of the John Dortmunder novels
(Kirkus Reviews).
The corpse isn't anybody special--a low-level drug courier--but it has
been so long since the organization's last grand funeral that Nick
Rovito decides to give the departed a big send-off. He pays for a huge
church, a procession of Cadillacs, and an ocean of flowers, and enjoys
the affair until he learns the dead man is going to his grave wearing
the blue suit. Rovito summons Engel, his right-hand man, and tells him
to get a shovel. Inside the lining of the blue suit jacket is $250,000
worth of uncut heroin, smuggled back from Baltimore the day the courier
died. When Engel's shovel strikes coffin, he braces himself for the
encounter with the dead man. But the coffin is empty, the heroin gone,
and Engel has no choice but to track down the missing body or face his
boss's wrath.