Tom Maloney, genial front man for the guilty businessmen, can buy anything, or anybody. And he wants the shooter found and taken care of. He wants no police involved, because then the secrets of the cover-up would be bared. Enter Walter Sherman, a.k.a The Locator, a Viet Nam vet who has made a career of finding people who'd like to stay hidden. Maloney hires Walter, and the chase begins.

Meanwhile, Isobel Gitlin, a young, pretty obituary writer for the New York Times, finally persuades her bosses that the shootings are connected to the meat scandal. Walter recruits her for his chase. But when Walter finds out the men who hired him are threatening Isobel, he's ready to quit right then. That turns out to be more complicated than he'd thought it might be. The two of them team up to carry the story to a clever, satisfying conclusion.

Anyone who reads this is likely to look askance at the next hamburger that appears on a lunch plate. The author, a retired broadcast executive, knows big business, and has no illusions about it.

This top-flight thriller, the first in a planned series, starts out way too slowly, but the rewards are great for a patient reader. Greener does a decent job of handling his large, unwieldy cast of interesting characters, but he produces a long backstory for every one of them, and juggles their appearances enough to make the reader wonder what's going on and when the story will take off. His settings, from New York to Walter Sherman's obscure Caribbean island hideout, are memorable. Still, any reader who hangs in until Isobel begins to fight with her superiors is sure to be smiling at that point and thinking, "You go, girl!" From there on, the story moves quickly.

Surprising numbers of thrillers these days seem to follow a standard plot, and some of the writers verge on incompetence. Greener's plot is complex and original, and he writes well. Leonard Martin is such an engaging villain that most people will be cheering for him at the same time they know he has to be stopped. Walter Sherman, the loner who solves the case, is the hard man with a heart whom we all love. A couple of the obligatory sex scenes fill the bill without going into prurient detail.

If Greener's next book lives up to the standard this one sets, The Locator will find a legion of fans, wherever they may be hiding.