This is book 6 of the "Travis McGee" series.

This note contains spoilers for the book.

Sixth Travis McGee book. MacDonald was a well-established writer of thrillers when he started up with McGee, but they seem to have been the part of his output that lasted.

A very nasty scam, involving the stunning girl marrying the guy they're cleaning, cleans a fairly nice guy. Some of the people involved in the scam are really scuzzy, too. Several people are killed on the way to the not-so-satisfactory conclusion. But a couple of people are probably salvaged, so it's not a total loss.

This one is very Florida; located there, and the kind of scam involved is one suitable to a growing state with lots of open land. I'd been noticing that the early books mostly avoided the strong Florida focus that became strongly associated with the series.

The most dangerous bad guy is clearly one sick puppy.