A prolific author of books on politics and history (Prejudice in America
, etc.), Kronenwetter makes a solid fiction debut with this soft-boiled mystery, which won the 2004 PWA/SMP Best Private Eye Novel contest. PI Hank Berlin, who's juggling work with caring for his six-year-old son in the small Wisconsin town of Pinery Falls while his ex-wife is away on business, reluctantly agrees to help Liz Drucker, who broke Hank's heart in high school, find the killer of her husband and his one-time best friend, Jack, a reporter who was shot dead in his car. It's up to Hank to determine which, if any, of the many stories Jack was working on could have led to murder. Hank uncovers an abundance of shocking secrets, all of them providing plenty of motive, from smalltown political corruption and the Milwaukee mafia to undisclosed Vietnam War crimes and teenage prostitution. Kronenwetter throws out enough red herrings and plot twists to keep the pages turning to the satisfying, if somewhat improbable, conclusion. (Sept.)
