Cozzy Crager, the world-weary protagonist of “Return to Dead City.”, is out to solve a mystery in this noir mystery set in a tough Pennsylvania city where the drug dealers and bad guys seem to out-number the hard-working people. Battling booze and his worst nightmares of years spent on the Albuquerque police force, he’s back in this decaying, crime-ridden town for the first time since he was a young man. Crager is barely settled into his gig as a detective when he gets an anonymous call of a murder. Lance Miller, the Mets’ slugging star with the shadowy past, has been found dead in a downtown hotel. Lance’s time with the team had been brief, his relationship with teammates, lovers and others somewhat vague and mysterious. And so, Crager begins the task of following leads and ferreting out information, a job that takes him from the back alleys of the city to the halls of academia. Readers will love Crager, a sleuth quick with a wise crack as well as his fists. This page-turner marked the debut of Mike Reuther, perhaps better known as the author of the baseball novel, "Nothing Down."
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