When a scam turns sour, corpses ripen

Since the publication of her first Jake Hines novel, Triple Play, Elizabeth Gunn has proved to have perfect pitch. Her depiction of life in a troubled small city, her understanding of not only police procedures but police officers, and her ability to bring the reader into the lives she writes about have all been noted from the beginning, and have only grown in power with each successive title in the series. Seventh Inning Stretch is no exception to that track record.

Someone's cheating the citizens of Rutherford: a gang of scam artists has hit town and has Jake Hines and his team spinning, trying to follow a trail of dodging and deceit. When the grifters' leader turns up dead, the stakes start rising, and Jake finds himself with less time for his own life as every moment is devoted to preventing a murder from turning into a bloodbath. With little energy left to deal with matters on the home front, Jake may be having trouble uncovering the truth about what's happening to his city, but he does learn that when it comes to hard bargaining and barter, his girlfriend Trudy possesses a surprising, and welcome, talent.

And when it comes to the police procedural, Elizabeth Gunn's talents are peerless.