Elmo Finn Mystery

In Victim's Choice, the spectacular first novel by Michael McClister, Joe Colby is a successful TV newscaster and a recent widower. When he loses his two children to a rapist-murderer, there is little that can be done to assuage his crippling grief-even when the man is caught and put behind bars. With an unquenchable thirst for revenge, Joe develops a crazy scheme to get at him in prison. But the cops, particularly one he knows well, make him see reason. At the same time, there begins in the city a series of murders of people close to convicted killers. A double homicide takes the lives of the wives of the lawyer who defended several of the criminals and the judge whose sentences were thought too lenient. A citywide panic begins as others receive threats and there are more murders. A famous crime fighter is soon enlisted to try and find the person who calls himself "The Avenger". The tension mounts until the climactic and utterly surprising ending.

Elmo Finn, first introduced in McClister's Victim's Choice, is a former CIA commando as well as a number of other things, although very few people could tell you exactly what. An old Vietnam buddy of Elmo's, now the governor of Tennessee, has been receiving death threats. As the governor and his 'body men' struggle to improve security, little do they expect that the immediate threat is posed by Elmo Finn himself. But, as Elmo stealthily penetrates the governor's inner sanctum, another crisis erupts - the governor's wife is kidnapped. Instead of cold cash, the kidnappers demand an unusual ransom - the release from prison of a convicted bank robber, whom they mysteriously label a 'political prisoner.' The call goes out to Elmo's old Vietnam cadre, they quickly assemble in Nashville, and the game is afoot. And, while Tennessee is not Vietnam, it has its own brand of guerillas, a shadowy religious cult-cum-well-armed militia that soon becomes the chief suspect in the twisting, turning hunt for the First Lady. The surprises that keep popping up, and the tricks that Elmo and his men learned in war, will fascinate readers and keep them glued to the pages as this action-packed story unfolds.