“When they drove up the hill a killer was already hidden in his ambush, waiting…”
 
So begins this Ben Shock and Charity Tucker mystery, latest in a series whose first entry, A MURDER OF CROWS, was chosen by The New York Times as one of the year’s ten best.
 
The scene is a sleepy New England resort town that explodes into violence and death over one frantic Fourth of July weekend. Caught right in the middle is Ben Shock – big, tough, and ready to throw a punch at any opponent who challenges him. At his side is Charity Tucker – beautiful and brainy, more than willing to help Ben with intuition and sweet reason.
 
Ben and Charity are drawn into danger by a murderer who uses as his weapon a 75mm recoilless rifle, capable of blasting an automobile into scrap metal. At the story’s explosive climax, the discovery of the killer’s identity presents Charity with the most difficult decision she has ever had to face.
 
So turn the pages – join Ben and Charity in Pilgrim’s Pride, Massachusetts, and read about malice, murder, madness – and a parliament of owls.

(This novel was co-written by Edwin Corley and Jack Murphy; they shared the pseudonym of Patrick Buchanan).