County Line Corpse - Tragic Threesome

#3 in the Love Gone Murder Series, An 80s Crime Novel, County Line Corpse deals with a drug shoot out and the gruesome murder of a young woman found on a gravel road on the edge of the city. With roots in Ohio and West Texas, the 45-year-old career cop, Duncan Hinkley, focuses his obsessive behavior on solving crime. Or as he puts it catching "The Bone."  Corruption within the Metro Homicide department hampers crime solving efforts. When he visits the grungy 'pick-up bar, The Cockney, Detective Hinkley ultimately gets more than he expected with few clues to the County Line murder and an "it" girl.

 A naked young woman found on a remote gravel road:  The body wiped clean with a medical strength solution; the victim has no foreign DNA residue. As a result, Hinkley and his young partner, Sullivan, struggle with possible motives for her brutal rape with an unknown object. A solitary clue, a young woman's martyr pose puzzles the detectives and a stubborn M.E.'s  'No cause of Death', sends them down a blind alley, after "the donut guy."  

Hinkley's cluelessness on two cases, and a new relationship disrupt his normal thorough sleuthing behavior. A drug house woman's dog tattoo remains a mystery throughout the story. That female wounded in a close-quarters four-person murder evaporates along with the principle driver of clues in the County Line Murder. From Book One, The Cockney returns again and again in the series to offer a look inside a world of cheaters and garish sexual behavior.