Private Detective and retired counterintelligence officer Art Hardin usually stays away from the flashy kind of PI work, paying his bills by doing surveillance, checking up on false disability claims, and the like. So when the senior partner one of the premier legal firms in Grand Rapids approaches Hardin about a job protecting his niece from her soon-to-be ex-husband for a couple of days, Hardin isn’t exactly eager to take on the job—not the least because the niece herself is under house-arrest pending a murder investigation of her former boss . . . and the sudden disappearance of eleven million dollars.
However, Hardin finds that the fee offered is too great to pass up, and takes on the job of making sure the niece stays alive to answer for the missing money and the murder. Of course, after a hatchet attack, a house burnt down, and a few violent encounters with some crooked cops, Hardin can hardly wait for the assignment to be over. But when the husband is found murdered, the niece attempts suicide, and Hardin is brought in on a trumped-up warrant for the crime, it’s no longer a case that he’s willing to walk away from—even if he could. It’s just Art Hardin’s luck that when things seem to be bleakest—that’s when they get even bleaker. Dirty cops, hard-nosed Feds, dastardly attorneys and desperate criminals are just the beginning. The real adversary comes from out of Art Hardin’s past, and lurks just out of sight. This remarkably well-crafted story has the trademark qualities of a superior detective mystery: deft plotting, lively dialogue and characters that seem as real as your friends. Private Heat is the beginning of a very exciting new series.
