Seventh Inning Stretch

Jake Hines #5

by Elizabeth Gunn

People tend to laugh a bit, usually out of embarrassment, when they're taken in by grifters and scam artists. But there's not much to laugh about in this fifth installment in the Jake Hines mystery series. A gang of scammers has descended on Rutherford, Minnesota. They have Jake and his team spinning in place, trying to follow a trail of dodging and deceit.It stops being a game of catch-me-if-you-can, though, when the grifters’ leader turns up dead and Jake finds his own life on hold as every moment is devoted to preventing a murder from turning into a bloodbath. With little energy left to deal with matters on the home front, Jake may be having trouble uncovering the truth about what's happening in his city, but he does learn that when it comes to hard bargaining and barter, his girlfriend, Trudy, possesses a surprising, and welcome, talent.

Genres: Mystery, Procedural, Mystery Thriller

234 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

A one-time innkeeper with a taste for adventure, Elizabeth has been a private pilot, sky diver, SCUBA diver, and liveaboard sailor. Extensive travel in the US, Canada, Mexico and Europe led to a second career as a free-lance travel writer, during which she began writing a series of police procedural mysteries set in southeast Minnesota, where she grew up. Her books contrast the sometimes gritty routine of police work with the idyllic rural scenes around a mid-size city in the upper Midwest.

Reviews

[Mary E Kilpatrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful!

Jake Hines and staff are delightful to follow. Always have an unexpected story inside another story! Thanks for great novels?

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little too procedural but likable characters and good plot.

[Vfields Don't touch my happy! · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my third book in this series and I still love it. Jake Hines has been promoted and he’s having a hard time giving it all up and moving on to a much more supervising position. Trudy is getting much tougher and we’re seeing more about what she does for a living. The gang has discovered a garbage bin that has a half naked man in it…with another man stuffed in the bottom. Bo has to deal with his wife and that’s cool. I sucked this book down in a few days and it was so satisfying. I’m so happy I tripped over this writer, Elizabeth Gunn.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this series. The characters and their interactions are always interesting and the crimes are odd or unusual in some way. The sport involved in this one is baseball.
Recommended, but begin at the beginning with Triple play to see the way people and their relationships progress or change.
These mysteries are all pretty short (not much over 200 pages) and fast-reading.

[Patti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of interesting twists and turns in this one, plus the way that one case ties to another is very, very interesting. I think I've only got one more reread to go, then onto new-to-me titles in this series, plus Ms. Gunn's other series set in Tucson.

[Nancy Savonick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well-written, great character development, but too graphic for my (admittedly tame) taste.

[Michelle Diener · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this police procedural. The eye for detail, the characterization, were all spot on.

[Hapzydeco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written pre-CSI. A by-the-book police procedural. Starts slow but the last three chapters picked up speed and saved what could have been an unsatisfying read.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an easy read...well written with an intriguing plot. I'm not uaually a fan of police procedurals, but I really enjoyed this book.

[Vontel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, perhaps more because it filled in some gaps in Crazy Eights with Jake's life, as well as those of his "crew". Certainly filled with lots of twisting plot lines.