When Old Men Die

October 31, 1994
When Truman Smith, Crider's Texas Gulf Coast semiretired PI, muses, ``feeling guilt is one of the things I do best,'' readers will not argue. Smith, who last felt inadequate in Gator Kill, can't find Outside Harry, well-known indigent of Galveston Island, whose missing status was first noticed by Smith's boyhood chum Dino. Dino, agoraphobic scion of the family of ``uncles'' that once ran the Island's now defunct gambling casino, hires his pal to find Harry. In the course of the search, which meanders around the Island and involves a couple of generations of colorful characters, the ex-bodyguard of one of the uncles is shot dead and another homeless man is killed. Smith, attacked a few times himself, uncovers and defeats a trio of murderers. The guilt-ridden Smith, who reads Look Homeward, Angel and listens to Elvis recordings, doesn't evoke much sympathy here, though he does solve some crimes and get Dino out of the house.