Dead on Arrival

Det. Inspector Luke Thanet's stomach clenches up as soon as he hears the phrase "head bashed in." Even after countless homicides, the mild-mannered country cop has never gotten comfortable with murder, and his latest case is particularly upsetting. The dead man is found in bed, apparently the victim of a single blow with a blunt object. When the corpse is identified as Steven Long, the question is no longer who wanted to kill him, but who didn't? A troublemaker with enemies wherever he went, Long was loathed by everyone in town, from his long-suffering ex-wife to the man whose family he killed in a driving accident. To find the culprit, Thanet will have to get to the bottom of a lifetime of hate.