Witness to Evil

THIS SHADY CAMPUS HAS MORE SECRETS THAN TREES…AND IT GIVES A WHOLE NEW MEANING TO DETENTION!

Oakland private eye Jeri Howard has landed a sweet gig: five days of Paris cafes and museums on somebody else's franc. The assignment?

Track down and retrieve a precocious seventeen-year-old who swiped her mother's credit card and took off for Paris.

Finding the girl (who's not exactly hiding anyway - after all, she's using her mother's credit card) is no mystery for a P.I. with Jeri's investigative skills. But the girl, Darcy, is on a mission to uncover family secrets. Her grandmother, it seems, has a past life and identity she's shared only recently. As it turns out, Darcy didn't need to travel to Paris to confront the evil that retains its vicious hold on the world in a modern-day counterpart. It'll be waiting for her at home.

Jeri's mission accomplished, they part, with Jeri's invitation to call if ever Darcy needs help. Distress code: "We'll always have Paris." The call's not long in coming. Darcy is now a

"person of interest" in a murder case and, once again, in the wind.

People at her new school seem to believe the worst of her, the police are inclined to agree, and she's been sighted driving the dead man's car with a couple of skinheads on her tail. This is not what Jeri was picturing when she cautioned, "Stay out of trouble, okay?"

The murder victim was the school handyman, an average-looking joe who kept some pretty rough company - skinheads with steel-toed boots and swastika tattoos.

School officials have issued a gag order, but Jeri manages to glean one clue from Darcy's roommate - the murder victim is not who he seems. Jeri relentlessly chases down the victim's identity and teases out the connections that weave a web of hate from World War II to Darcy's campus. As always, Jeri gets the last word - and the satisfaction of getting in a few good licks.

Fans of hard-boiled women sleuths, historical mysteries, and detective novels with a twist will love P.I. Jeri Howard. If you like Sue Grafton, Marcia Muller, T.R. Ragan, Laura Lippman, and Alison Gaylin, take Jeri out for a test drive-she's your kind of tough, take-no prisoners female detective.

"…Jeri Howard, another Californian, is a kindred spirit of Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op character."

--USA Weekend