The Honky Tonk Big Hoss Boogie: A Sessions Man Mystery

Randisi's second mystery featuring Nashville musician and part-time PI Auggie Velez (after 2012's The Session Man) is one of the prolific author's best recent outings, pairing a different kind of sleuth with a nicely twisted puzzle. Velez's musical career has never quite taken off; to his chagrin, he's best known for a song he's embarrassed by, and mostly works as a fill-in for bands in need of a guitarist on a temporary basis. He does some low-level gumshoe work, which mostly consists of some surveillance and process-serving. When a local lawyer and promoter offer him $5,000 to deliver a suitcase, without revealing its contents, Velez is appropriately suspicious, but a sweetener%E2%80%94the chance to record his own songs%E2%80%94tips the balance. The errand apparently goes off without a hitch, until the man he gave the MacGuffin to ends up murdered, leaving the musician in the crosshairs of the local homicide detectives. With his neck on the line, Velez struggles desperately to get to the truth. The detecting is plausible, and the lead sympathetic. (Aug.)