The Jake Lydon Series
Meet Jake Lydon — a different kind of sleuth (and not in a good way.) The paunchy, long-haired, Hawaiian shirt-wearing, foul-mouthed, chain-smoking, near-alcoholic, semi-reclusive retiree has a different take on just about everything. Mostly he wants to do the one thing he's very good at — Nothing.
But the mysterious death of a former boss changes everything. Helped by his homicide detective daughter, his laconic neighbour and drinking buddy, and a young computer hacking genius, Jake sets off on a wild quest to find the who, and why behind his ex-employer's murder.
Jake Lydon is back! And looking forward to a relaxing winter in the tropics after the summer “shi*tstorm” chronicled in Connecdead. But the part-time detective and full-time slacker’s dream of endless beer and beach is shattered by the grisly murder of a friend and fellow expatriate. Was it a simple robbery gone horrifically wrong or something more? Something that points the finger at one of Jake’s motley crew of drinking buddies as the killer?
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As with pretty well everything else in his middle-age, Jake doesn’t have a friggin’ clue. And neither does Arturo “Arty” Diaz, the region’s top cop, who reluctantly takes Jake on as his unofficial deputy.
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Together, the improbable duo digs deeper, throwing out all the “possible” scenarios to get to the “likely” ones.
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And together they discover that the mostly likely solution lies with a vicious criminal enterprise exploiting the lives of the most vulnerable on their Caribbean island. Ultimately, they find their case hangs on the deadly blade of a machete.
Ah, summertime in cottage country and the livin’s easy. At least that was Jake Lydon’s plan. After a tumultuous winter in the Caribbean, Jake was really looking forward to a little gardening, a little writing and a lot of over-refreshments around his lakeside cottage.
No such luck as a big-time real estate developer wants Jake’s property along with hundreds of acres around it for a luxury project. And he’ll stop at nothing to get it.
To no one’s surprise, Jake holds out, incurring the wrath of the entire community (except Carl, his laconic neighbour). As Jake digs into the shady motivations of all the players involved, he must face escalating acts of vandalism that turn to violence and, finally, attempted murder.
And then there’s that pesky matter of two dead politicians – one opposed and one supporting Edgewater Estates. Were their deaths accidental as the police concluded? Or were they bushwhacked?
Jake has only one option: to put that beer down and figure it all out before things get even uglier.