Description: Greg Samuelson hired Joe Kozmarski to dig up dirt on his wife and her lover, Eric Stone, but now it looks like Samuelson has torched Stone's car, killed his boss, and shot himself, all in one hour. The police think they've got it figured out, but it's not so simple. Stone wants to hire Kozmarski to clear Samuelson; Samuelson's dead boss has a saintly reputation but a red-hot past; and a gang led by a 1960s radical shows up in Kozmarski's office with payoff money, warning him to turn a blind eye to murder. Meanwhile, Kozmarski is working things out with his ex-wife, his new partner, and his live-in nephew.
Brief description:
Michael Wiley is the author of The Last Striptease, which won the St. Martin's Press / Private Eye Writers of America contest for best first unpublished private eye novel in 2006 and was nominated for a Shamus Award in 2008. He grew up in Chicago and has lived and worked in the neighborhoods and streets where he sets his Kozmarski mysteries. As part of this other life, Wiley has published books on Romantic geography and Romantic migrations. He lives with his family in Florida, where he teaches literature at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.
Review Quotes:
"In Wiley's strong second mystery to feature Chicago PI Joe Kozmarski, Joe...has plenty of grit, and his style suits Chicago fine."
-- "Publishers Weekly"