Office Brandon Gullick has been found dead outside a barn on the property of one Donny Blackmon – a noted blogger specializing in guns and hatred of all things connected to law enforcement. He hates cops. Gullick was beaten and shot. A handgun from Donny’s arsenal of sidearms was found at the scene along with a partial fingerprint of its owner. Pretty open and shut case for the Ambletown police. And you can bet that law enforcement will pull out all the stops to catch the man who killed a brother law enforcement officer.
But Blackmon has flown the coop. Off the grid. Hiding. And he has a quite the following from his blog meaning plenty of like-minded folks willing to help Donny evade capture. A reward has been posted and there’s even been a second reward posted for Donny’s head, a bounty of $500K by a shadowy group known as Blue Fury (gonna go out on a limb and say we'll hear more from Blue Fury in future Ed Runyon books). Donny has left his wife and young daughter Cassie to fend for themselves as best they can.
This is where Ed gets called in. Donny’s wife wants Ed to find him. But not to bring him in. She only wants Ed to deliver a letter she’s written to Donny. The letter is asking Donny to please contact her. In the couple months that Donny’s been living off the grid, daughter Cassie has been diagnosed with a childhood cancer so she’s imploring him to make contact.
Ed’s not interested in the case because every cop in Ohio is looking for Donny. Not to mention numerous other PIs and bounty hunters are in search of the chance at a cool half million dollars. But Ed has a soft spot for kids with problems and he takes the case for Cassie. The question is what will happen first. Will Donny get captured by the law? Killed by bounty hunters? Or will Cassie’s disease become more aggressive?
After my previous review of an Oceanview Publishing book (Killer Story with a distasteful protagonist), I ventured again into Oceanview. Having read Steve Goble’s two previous Ed Runyon books, I felt safe in the notion that our boy Ed Runyon will be true to form from Oceanview. Flawed but decent PI getting the job done. A linear plot with a few twists right up to the big reveal. Quality PI story. That’s what I’ve come to expect from Oceanview, their bread and butter. The kind of fun aside in the book is Mifflin County Sheriff Baxter who never met a metaphor he couldn’t mangle: ‘coming down there faster than a split log’ or ‘painting a barn that’s already been knocked down.’ After a couple of those, I couldn't wait for the next Runyon-Baxter conversation.
And I learned a new word: widdershims, as in “One would go clockwise and the other widdershims.” Had to look that one up.
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