Safe Return Doubtful

American Fiction – published 1993

This a wild ride story of four Miami single twenty-somethings living in a singles apartment in the 1970s whose plans for routine fun get them into some serious trouble.

Pharmaceutical detail man Hank Norton, responding to a bet that he can’t pick up a date in two hours at a drive-in, picks up a zonked out 13-year-old who dies moments later of a drug overdose. The four friends band together to find the supplier responsible for her death, thereby leading them into a romp that takes another brisk turn before it’s over.

A few months later, one Mr Wright, the seemingly irate husband of Hank’s current romantic interest Jannaire, tells Hank he’s going to kill him and proceeds to try with a series of near-misses. Hank decides he’s got to kill Mr. Wright first. Scraping out of this skirmish, Hank and Larry Dolman, a private security man, take off for wintry Chicago, where they’re eventually joined by the remaining members of the quartet.

Basically, this is a series of action packed scenes and trademark Willeford snappy dialogue that don’t fit together very well, but are nonetheless entertaining. It’s an uneven story with flashes of Willeford’s brilliance… good, but not Willeford at his best. Interestingly, Willeford himself considered this as his masterpiece.

My GoodReads score 4 / 5