Cutthroat Business is an outdoor cozy mystery, first in the Fishing for Mystery series. This first installment of approximately 65,000 words centers on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. With plenty of local scenery and an inside look at cop humor, Cutthroat Business provides a wealth of detail and fun reading.
Lead character Rusty Travers guides anglers on her native Olympic Peninsula and competes on the bass tournament trail, where she is a rare species — female. Her brother Woody is a Port Angeles cop, but Rusty never intended to get involved in investigation. . . until the day one of her clients snagged a body in the Sol Duc River. That body turns out to be former boyfriend and Forest Service officer Todd Randt. So when the police work seems to stall, Rusty and her service dog Trophy sneak to Todd's house and find his case notebooks. And the hunt is on, through poachers of fish, old growth, mushrooms, salal, and tone wood to the final confrontation with the killer.
The second installment, Sole Suspect, will stay on the Olympic Peninsula to help readers really come to know the locale, before the third installment, Bass Ackward, departs to follow the bass tournanent trail.
