Dearly Departed

St. Paul private eye Holland Taylor is back in Edgar Award-winning author David Housewright's third lively tale.

Private investigator Holland Taylor has a low opinion of sleazy lawyer Hunter Truman and listens reluctantly to Truman's plea to help him find the missing Alison Emerton, whom the police suspect has been murdered. But when Truman plays the tape Alison left and shows Taylor her photograph, the elusive woman captures his curiosity. Could it be that Alison is not dead but has disappeared to start life under a new identity? If so, why?

As Taylor investigates, he meets people who loved her, or hated her - sometimes both. They include her secretive parents; her handsome, angry ex-husband; a wary former lover; her very loyal women friends; and the man the police had once held as the chief suspect. Taylor's investigation leads him to a rural Wisconsin town, where he meets two men very much involved in Alison's life and uncovers big-money plans involving a resort and proposed gambling casino: schemes with stakes high enough that they will cost not only fortunes but lives. As Taylor exposes the motives of the players and untangles Alison's strange story, events come together in an explosive finale.