When I saw a deal for a comedy mystery written by Dave Barry, I figured it was worth a try. Who doesn’t enjoy Dave Barry, in moderation? In my innocence, I imagined something like an updated Wodehouse story, maybe with dirty words.

And I won’t say Tricky Business wasn’t quite funny – in places. But mainly what I found myself reading was a gritty crime story, with plenty of killing and torture, plus a lot of potty jokes.

It’s a little difficult to identify the main character in the complicated plot, but I guess it would be Wally Hartley, an otherwise unemployed guitarist in a gig band, currently living in his mother’s house. His band plays regularly on the Extravaganza of the Seas, a sleazy cruise ship that does the popular three-mile run from Miami into international waters, for legal gambling. Then there are Arnold and Phil, a pair of bickering buddies from a retirement home. They take the short cruise just to ease the boredom of their lives. There’s Fay, a struggling single mother working as a cocktail waitress. And there’s Lou, a mobster who’s on board to oversee the drug smuggling that is the ship’s real reason for operation.

They’re all a little concerned this time out, because a hurricane is blowing up, and the authorities are telling everyone to stay at home. But somebody insists that the Extravaganza has to sail tonight.

I laughed more than once reading Tricky Business, but I was a little embarrassed to do so. I’m extremely uncomfortable with very black humor, where real cruelty is juxtaposed with buffoonery. I read the book all the way through, but honestly I couldn’t wait for it to be over.

It did come out all right in the end; I feel obligated to admit that.