TRIGGER CITY by Sean Chercover

Still feeling the physical and emotional effects of his brush with Chicago's Outfit in last year's Big City, Bad Blood, reporter-turned-P.I. Ray Dudgeon reluctantly goes to work for retired Colonel Isaac Richmond. Richmond's estranged daughter Joan had been head of payroll for a midsize-department store chain when she was murdered by her co-worker Steven Zhang, who left a signed confession before killing himself. Though the facts of the case are clear, Col. Richmond wants Dudgeon to fill in the picture of Joan's life. Ray knows better than to go off on a quixotic quest for truth, but with a shoulder needing surgery, he can't turn down the Colonel's hefty check.

As you might expect, Dudgeon's investigation uncovers much higher stakes, but where other writers would get carried away, Chercover keeps enough focus on Joan and Ray. Many of today's fictional PIs read like rushed updates of the classic archetype. Dudgeon is not the usual macho ex-cop. He never engages in bravado. He reads instead like a friend who's in the same boat we all are.

Trigger City goes on sale Tuesday, October 14, and Sean's book tour begins 7pm that night at one of my favorite bookstores, Partners & Crime. The next day, he'll sign at New Jersey's Clinton Book Shop.