MURDER BOOK

A Chicago cop–turned–private eye agrees to turn over some rocks in nearby Indiana and finds nasty things under every single one.

U.S. Attorney Ellen Leicester suspects that someone’s gearing up to coordinate and extend midlevel crimes in the area. Since her suspicions aren’t enough to shake loose government funding, she turns to Harry Duncan, whom she hasn’t seen since their marriage ended 15 years ago, for “a scouting mission.” Planning to say no, Duncan says yes instead and goes looking for bad buys in Parkman’s Elbow, Indiana. He doesn’t have to look hard at all, because enterprising bad guys are already looking for him. A pair of them passing themselves off as cops try to get him to pay them off not to tow his car, whose paperwork they claim is irregular, from the parking lot of The Elbow Room. Duncan makes short work of these lowlifes, and the three Clark brothers, who come to extort protection money from Renee Parkman at The Elbow Room, don’t last much longer. But Duncan’s labors are only beginning, for Ellen’s suspicions about the tentacles of organized crime are right on the money. Gerald Russell, a realtor working for faceless overlords in Chicago, is systematically putting pressure on many local establishments, squeezing them for payoffs with the ultimate goal of bankrupting and buying their businesses at a steep discount. Jeanette Walrath, the assassin Russell hires to smooth the rough edges, poses dangers of her own. What worries Duncan most, though, is his sudden inability to get his ex to pick up the phone. Could there be a mole in her own office?

Top-drawer thrills from an author whose hard-nosed hero is as professional as he is.