Better Off Dead — Katy Munger

Casey Jones is as tough as they come. She's big, blond and shoots to kill with the best of them -- even if she does lack an official P.I. license due to an unfortunate interlude behind bars. It takes a lot to faze her...but there are still some cases that hit her like a piledriver to the gut. This is one of them.

Helen McInnes, the victim of a horrible crime, barely escaped with her life. Traumatized by the experience, she can no longer set foot outside her home. Further devastated by her attacker's acquittal and the anonymous threats she begins to receive, Helen turns to Casey for help reclaiming her life. Leaving Helen with a motley crew of bodyguards-including Casey's temperamental boyfriend Burly, her corpulent partner Bobby D., his equally rotund paramour Fanny, and a near-comatose dog named Killer -- Casey heads back to school. But she's prowling nearby Duke University with a different sort of education in mind: one that will help her unmask a fiend who has been using the campus as his personal hunting ground...and enable her to survive him when she finds him.