Tax in Blood, The Leo Haggerty Mysteries

A faked suicide sucks Leo Haggerty into the investigation of a terrorist bombing

Leo Haggerty walks the long wall of the Vietnam War Memorial, his girlfriend, Samantha, and his best friend, Arnie, at his sides. Arnie wanders away and meets a young boy whose mother asks if the veteran could lift her son up high enough to read the name of his uncle, his namesake. Some men might break down at the sight of the wall, but Arnie is stone-faced. Since he returned from ’Nam, nothing moves him at all. That night, a newsbreak: There’s been a bombing at the memorial. Nineteen are dead, including the child.

The FBI pursues the case doggedly, but they get nowhere, and it falls to Haggerty to prove that a man found dead in a motel room, suicide note by his side, did not, in fact, kill himself. As the case points him toward the bombers whose rampage has struck fear into the heart of Washington, DC, Haggerty will find out there’s a dark side to patriotism.

A Tax in Blood is the 3rd book in the Leo Haggerty Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.