For his next hardboiled case, P.I. Frank Johnson investigates the disappearance of Salem Dawson, a local young bookkeeper. Her older sister, Trisha, brings the case to Frank's office. Trisha made a $13,000 car loan to Salem, who failed to make her first monthly payment before she vanished. As he looks into her case, Frank begins to suspect foul play when events take a dark turn.
Frank also forges an "unholy alliance" with a local mobster named Maggot Nose to do favors for each other. The construction of a new data center cluster causes significant changes to Frank's small town, which irritates him. As always, Frank relies on his long-time friend and business partner, Gerald Peyton; his medical examiner wife, Dreema; and his brilliant and outspoken attorney, Robert Gatlin, for help.
Critically acclaimed crime novelist James Crumley endorsed the P.I. Frank Johnson Mystery Series. "With a plot as complex as your grandmother's crocheted doilies, Mr. Lynskey creates a portrait of the rural hill country that rings as true as the clank of a Copenhagen can on a PBR can, as does his handle on guns, love, and betrayal. This novel is well worth the read and makes me want more."
#1 New York Times bestselling author James Rollins states, "Ed Lynskey's P.I. Frank Johnson's books are as hard-bitten and hard-boiled as they come. The dialogue crackles with such sharpness that you'd swear sparks were jumping off the pages. And P.I. Frank Johnson is a character cut from the Tarantino mold: tough, wounded, conflicted, and badass."
New York Times bestselling author and Edgar Award-winning author Megan Abbott writes the P.I. Frank Johnson mystery series, which "bears the richest nicotine and bourbon stains of the hardboiled genre, yet also bristles with vitality. The plot sings, the characters are twisty and textured, and the violence is brutal but inevitable. These elements would be more than enough, yet Ed Lynskey offers so much more in the form of a perfectly pitched prose style that swings effortlessly from back-country grit to Appalachian poetry and back again."
