Dead Ringer — Michael A. Black

Private eye Ron Shade and news reporter Alex St. James nearly ran into each other in the final chapters of their respective adventures, A Final Judgment and Deadly Interest. Little did they know that their chance encounter would place them on a future collision course. Now, in Dead Ringer, their first adventure together, Shade is looking for Bob Bayless, a dead-and-buried executive who was recently spotted playing blackjack in Vegas, while Alex fights off the attentions of a creepy mortician who???s a little too eager to show Alex his backroom moves. Although it seems their two cases couldn???t be further apart, clues ??? and bodies ??? start adding up to tell a different tale. When Alex and Shade connect, the two find themselves involved in a combined case so convoluted that even the dead don???t stay buried for long. In an all-out scramble to figure out who really is deceased, and who???s about to end up that way, Shade and Alex get on the fast track to Deadman???s Curve only to discover powerful individuals who will stop at nothing to keep their millions rolling in. Stretching from the back alleys of Chicago to the Strip in Las Vegas, the mysterious puzzle keeps Shade and Alex guessing as everything comes together to reveal a sinister conspiracy of unspeakable evil. Everything is on the line as Shade and Alex race down those mean streets toward a climax where both their lives hang in the balance.