The Cleveland Local: A Cleveland Novel Featuring Milan Jacovich

As in his seven previous adventures, including last year's Collision Bend, Cleveland PI Milan Jacovich once again gets warned, threatened, bashed and slashed. This time out, he even gets fire-bombed. Cleveland attorney Joel Kerner Jr. is shot and killed while on a vacation tour of the Caribbean island of San Carlos. While the local police are quick to write it off as a robbery attempt gone bad, Joel's sister, Patrice, is not convinced and hires Jacovich to investigate. A quick trip to the island, although not without peril, leads him to believe the answer to the killing lies in Cleveland, not San Carlos. The trail he follows takes him to Joel's fellow tourists, to his father (a lawyer) and a crusty, toupee-topped old-timer in charge of a union pension fund. Jacovich draws a familiar cast of characters, including Lieutenant Marko Meglich of the homicide department and newspaper columnist Ed Stahl, into danger as well. The straight-ahead, confrontational style of Jacovich produces results along with bruises, but this time catching the killer comes at a high personal cost. Low-key and reliable are descriptive of Jacovich and the stories in which he features. (Nov.)