Amazon.com Review
A new Deal is always cause for celebration. In this sixth outing for Standiford's broody antihero, the Miami contractor is ready to break out the champagne and celebrate the big contract he's just been awarded. The job will not only put DealCo in the black again, it may also restore the luster on the family business that was tarnished by the suicide of its founder, Deal's larger- than-life old man.

But Deal soon learns there are strings attached to the contract, and they are all tied to his father's friendship with Lucky Rhodes, a long-dead gangster whose son wants something besides the multimillion dollar project he's hired Deal to build. It's not only Richard Rhodes who needs Deal to find the treasure entrusted by Lucky to Barton Deal for safekeeping a generation ago. The corrupt federal agent who set Deal's father up as a snitch and maybe even a murderer back then is still looking for Lucky's money and has no compunctions about trapping Barton's son in the same snare. Deal with the Dead shows off Standiford's superb pacing. The action doesn't stop, but no nuance of character development is sacrificed to the swiftly developing plot. The suicide of Barton Deal and its effect on his son has been an underlying theme in Standiford's thrillers since he first introduced John Deal in Done Deal. Here the talented author not only explains this back story, but he uses it to tell a powerful tale of redemption and family honor. The result is the best so far in a long-running and justly popular string of thrillers that will more than satisfy readers who may have enjoyed and appreciated Standiford's recent non-Deal mystery, Black Mountain, but still missed the popular series hero. --Jane Adams