FATAL CONFLICT

Portland private eye Tess Grey and her fiance and sometime partner, Nicolas Villere, get roped into a hunt for a man on the run from some seriously bad hombres.

Grease monkey Anthony Vaughan, aka Tony One-Eye, fled California for Maine, and the Brogan brothers, Bryce and Josh, are hot on his trail. When Josh harshly questions Tony’s half brother, Bob Wilson, about Tony’s whereabouts, the frightened Bob points him toward Peabody, the man who owns Charley’s auto shop. Peabody is actually Po’boy, the nickname by which Villere’s widely known, though evidently not to Bob. Thinking that the owner of a body shop won’t put up much resistance, the brothers come down hard on Po and Tess, but they’re frightened off by the timely intervention of Pinky Leclerc, the ex-con/ex-gangster who’s like a brother to them. Now Tess and Po face a dilemma. Should they seek out Tony and his pregnant ward, Leah, themselves to warn them that the psychotic Bryce and his marginally better-behaved kid brother are on their trail, or should they assume that any search they undertake will be dogged by the Brogans and their growing corps of local minions and lead them straight to their quarry? They opt to search, of course, starting with Tony’s mechanic friend Gabe Stahl, who, coming face to face with the terrified Tony, asks him, “What the hell did you do, buddy?” It’s a great question, one that poses the leading mystery of this manhunt, though the answer isn’t nearly as inspired.

Violent but routine clashes mark a search whose promised fatalities mostly have to wait for the epilogue.