Dying Embers — Robert E. Bailey

Art Hardin, who first appeared in Private Heat, is a retired counter intelligence officer who now earns his living as a private investigator. He spends most of his time on the small perfectly safe jobs a private eye can making a living on. But this new case is something altogether different: shortly after he agrees to locate the old flame of a wealthy industrialist, she turns up dead... and his client is charged with the murder. To add insult to injury, Hardin's PI license is revoked. Now, in order to catch the suspect and clear his name, hardin must play a deadly game of cat and mouse. Character driven and masterfully plotted, Dying Embers really cooks.