Peeper — Loren D. Estleman

MEET RALPH POTEET: PEEPER

Being a hard-boiled private eye in a crummy neighborhood of Detroit ain't easy. You gotta scrabble for every cent, whether it's pictures of the county supervisor's wife with a grocery store clerk, or a predawn call from a hooker upstairs with a dead monsignor in her bed.

Nothing shocks Ralph Poteet anymore, and he knows how to capitalize on a tricky situation like the monsignor's unseemly demise: Snap a few pictures and call the local bishop, who should after all, wish to avoid a scandal, even if it costs him a few hundred. Not that Ralph would ever stoop to blackmail. He just figures it's more like a contribution to his favorite charity--himself.

But before Lyla and Ralph can get the monsignor to a more suitable resting place, somebody tries to kill them both. Now Ralph's in a real fix that will whisk him from the seamy back alleys of the Motor City to the inner sanctums of Vatican politics and Washington dirty tricks, where the seven deadly sins are only half the reason for wanting this Detroit gumshoe to join the big detective agency in the sky.