HELL TO PAY

N.Y.: Soho Crime, 2014. 1st ed. A fine, unread copy of the Advance Uncopyedited Edition, due out June, 2014. 309 pages. Constable Paul Hirschhausen "Hirsch" is a recently demoted detective sent from Adelaide, Australia’s southernmost booming metropolis, to Tiverton, a one-road town in rustic, backwater "wool and wheat" country three hours north. Hirsch is more than just a disgraced cop, a rumored whistle-blower; the internal investigations bureau is still trying to convict him of something, even if it means planting evidence, and someone has a bullet they’d like to put in his head -- as has been made clear by the pistol cartridge left in his mailbox. Hirsch is just trying to keep his job, but the tiny town of Tiverton has more crime than one lone cop should have to handle. The stagnant economy, rural isolation, and entrenched racism and misogyny mean every case Hirsch investigates is a new basket of snakes. When the body of a 16-year-old local girl is found on the side of the highway, the situation in Tiverton gets even more sinister, and whether or not he finds her killer, there’s going to be hell to pay.. First Edition. Pictorial Wrappers. Fine. Advance Uncorrected Proof.