Tagged for Murder: A Dek Elstrom Mystery

The discovery of a man’s lifeless body on top of a boxcar in a little-used railway siding drives Fredrickson’s well-crafted seventh mystery featuring wily, wise-cracking Chicago PI Dek Elstrom (after 2017’s Hidden Graves). Clues to the dead man’s identity are contradictory: he’s wearing an expensive suit, but his teeth are rotting and his skin has the appearance of someone who has been living on the street. Well-known cheapskate and small-time realtor Herb Sunheim offers Dek $500 to take photos of the crime scene. Unclear on why Sunheim would pay for something already done by the police, Dek nonetheless accepts the task in order to earn some much-needed cash. Soon he is caught up in several tangled skeins of corruption, and, one by one, people connected with the case disappear or turn up dead. Will Dek be the next to meet his maker? Elements of farce, including a pack of geriatric dames in 1950s poodle skirts, enliven the proceedings. This entry is sure to garner new fans for this delightfully eccentric detective series. Agent: John Silbersack, Trident Media Group. (May)