The Black Mane

A spilled truckload. A lawyer with a valuable coin collection. And a text message from a man who will never send another.

Richard Gridson was only out for a drive. Top down, Beach Boys on the stereo, nothing on his mind. Then a truck drops its load across the road, and the man sitting dazed in the street turns out to be someone he knows: Hank Earl, attorney, loner, and collector of very valuable coins.

A few days later Hank is dead, and the camera outside his house caught Richard pulling up at just the wrong time.

Enter Inspector Michael Johns, a very tall man who lets silence do the talking. There is an ex-wife with an answer for everything, two coin dealers who were stood up at the same door, a feared figure known only as "Big Dog," and a small black-and-white kitten living under an assumed name. And there is Freddy, Richard's neighbor across the porch, who has her own opinion of the handsome inspector.

The Black Mane is the second book in the Horsefeathers mysteries: a quick, sly, good-humored read set in a small Florida community where everyone knows everyone, and nobody is quite who their résumé says.Perfect for readers who like their mysteries short, clever, and fun from the first page to the last.