But Now I See

Even with a left leg shattered by a drug dealer’s bullet and a medical retirement from the Detroit Police Force, former homicide captain Ed McAvoy feels he’s too young to be put out to pasture. Accepting the job as Police Chief of Peekamoose Heights, in New York’s Catskills, he figures it will be sort of like running a country club. After all, how much crime can there be in a quiet, little village?

McAvoy soon discovers that his skills as a homicide detective will not atrophy from lack of use in Peekamoose Heights. Murder, as it turns out, is an equal-opportunity crime that not only resides in large bustling cities like Detroit, but in sleepy Catskill villages like Peekamoose Heights as well.

In But Now I See, the eighth Ed McAvoy Mystery, Porky Jarvis, co-owner of The Plough & Whistle Pub in Peekamoose Heights, has been selected as one of the guest chefs for the ‘Gastronomy and Great Estates on the Hudson’ tour—a nine-day roundtrip cruise from New York City to Kinderhook to visit the historic mansions that dot the Hudson River shoreline, sandwiched between two two-day sightseeing excursions in Manhattan.

Figuring that he has earned a long overdue vacation, McAvoy signs up for the tour along with Porky’s sister, Stevie Henderson, even though, due to a previous commitment on Porky’s part, Porky and Stevie, and therefore McAvoy will have to leave the tour after dinner on Day #5.

Although not bringing his firearm with him, it’s a good thing the Peekamoose Heights Chief of Police didn’t forget to pack his investigative skills.

When one of the members of the tour group is murdered, the Ulster County Sheriff tasks the former Detroit Police Force Homicide Captain with discovering who did it. Not so simple a task. First, McAvoy must figure out if the victim was, indeed, the intended target or simply collateral damage in a botched attempt at the assassination of someone else.

Many questions. Few answers. And a secret group, monitoring McAvoy’s every move, who would like to keep it that way.