Jake Hines Series by Elizabeth Gunn
Jake Hines #1
Triple Play
Elizabeth Gunn
He lives just outside Minneapolis/St. Paul, where the city meets the prairie, where the winters are long, the men are rugged, and a stubborn detective with a murky past is a little out of place. But Jake Hines has to worry about more than just fitting in: there's a serial killer on the loose. The first victim was found on home plate in a neighborhood park. The next wore an old softball uniform and an obscene disfigurement. While Jake, a man who can solve any mystery except that of his own orphaned past, rummages through the dirty laundry of people's lives, a group of high-tech crime busters descends from the big city--thrilled at the chance to dance with a serial psycho. But even with a beautiful crime-scene photographer providing a major distraction, Jake takes no pleasure from this hunt. Because this killer is pulling him relentlessly toward one more murder, one more suspect, and one very bitter truth. . . .
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Jake Hines #2
Par Four
Elizabeth Gunn
Too many people see Rutherford, Minnesota, as a safe haven, an escape from the woes of the big cities, like St. Paul or Minneapolis. For Jake Hines - recently promoted to Chief of detectives in Rutherford - however, the picture is different. He's too aware of the deterioration of the old downtown section, and too involved in dealing with the kids who've turned to drugs, not only as a habit but as a way to get rich quick. And he knows that many of those kids - users and dealers alike - aren't local. It's because of those dealers that he's now facing a Critical Incident debriefing. As Jake puts it: "Dodging an occasional bullet is an inconvenience I can live with, but spilling my guts in public is not." He's saved from the ordeal when word comes of a robbery at a bar in the center of the city. It's a place he knows: He worked there once, and, like most of the men and boys back then, he really liked the owner, a woman named Babe. Rescuing her from the chair she's been duct-taped to is easy, but it's only the beginning; it releases a trail of robbery and murder that leads Jake to places he never expected to have to go in Rutherford, no matter how much it may have changed.
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Jake Hines #3
Five Card Stud
Elizabeth Gunn
The body was lying in the snow near the river, almost naked and definitely dead. It's not only the murder that has police detective Jake Hines concerned. His girlfriend, Trudy, the crime scene expert with the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, who ought to be at the scene, is stuck in a snowdrift somewhere. When a second body is discovered with a similar wound, a picture starts to emerge, an image etched in passion, betrayal, and fear. With the publication of Triple Play and Par Four, the first book in the Jake Hines series, Elizabeth Gunn was praised for her handling of character, plot, and procedure. In Five Card Stud, she deals a perfect hand.
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Jake Hines #8.50
Too Many Santas
Elizabeth Gunn
In this short, holiday-themed installment in the long-running Jake Hines Mystery series, the department store Santa of Rutherford, Minnesota, goes missing. Then a child's happy shout calls attention to the red-suited figure just visible within the branches of the Christmas tree. Jake Hines investigates a holiday mystery filled with too many Santas.
Whether you are looking for a quick introduction to this long-running, popular mystery series or you are in the mood for a bit of Christmas cheer, you can't go wrong with this quick read.
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