Murder in the Rose City — R. Barri Flowers

Murder in the Rose City is a taut, hard-boiled detective novel where nothing is what it seems. Eric Zachary Elias, nicknamed E.Z., is a half Jamaican/half Italian 41-year- old private investigator and ex-homicide detective for the Portland Police Bureau. He is six foot-five, hip, tough, armed with a .40 caliber Glock, and courts danger and romance with equal abandon. These qualities are put to the test when Elias takes on two seemingly unrelated cases. The more he investigates both cases, the more he realizes they are intricately connected. It literally becomes a life and death issue for Elias as he has to use all his detective skills and then some to fit all the pieces together in a deadly whodunit and why.