Fair Game: A Jackson Flint Mystery, Yellow Springs, Ohio

PI Jackson Flint, the hero of this strong series launch from Geisel (Cinderbox Road & Other Stories), spots a teenage girl while driving one rainy night on a back road in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He offers her a lift, which she accepts, though she doesn’t provide him with any information about herself before he drops her off at Antioch College at her request. Later, Flint’s approached by an attorney on behalf of an anonymous client, who’s searching for a missing person. Flint insists on meeting the prospective client before deciding whether to accept the case, and the lawyer takes him to Elizabeth Winstrop, whose daughter, Henna, vanished over 20 years earlier at 16. Flint’s dumbfounded when he sees a photo of Henna, who looks exactly like the girl he gave a ride to. Two recent calls asking for Henna prompted Elizabeth to seek a new set of eyes on the puzzle. When Flint investigates, he winds up uncovering family secrets and tackling a violent crime. Assured prose matches the credible plot. Fans of realistic PI fiction will look forward to the sequel. (Self-published)