King Con

Using the same mixture of action, charm, and believable characters that made his television series like The Rockford Files so much fun, Stephen J. Cannell has come up with a thriller that's as bright and breezy as a day at the beach. Ace grifter Beano X. Bates and his extended family make a nice living conning folks out of their savings with scams like "The Most Valuable Dog in the World." But when a New Jersey mobster named Joe Rina puts him in the hospital, Beano is out for massive revenge. With the help of a harried but sexy female prosecutor, the Bates family pulls off a series of consummate cons that leap to life from the printed page. Cannell's last thriller, __, is available in paperback.