Missing From The Links

by M.H. Burton

The detective, golf, and bed partners duo of Zach Roper and the Thai Princess untangled some tough cases of murder, sexual stalking, embezzlement and political intrigue in "Mixed The Zach Roper Mysteries" while remaining competitive on the links. Now they are onto something new, kidnapping...or rather Zach is onto it as the Princess is the victim. It starts routinely enough, an invitation to play a celebrity pro-am tournament at a newly-built links-type course on one of the San Juan Islands of Washington State. Plenty of free booze and bonhomie, which suits the Princess just fine, an air-headed eye candy TV actress duffer as a partner, who drives Zach up the wall. He's in a foul mood, worried about her heavy drinking and his own fading golf game. She's more than slightly sloshed when off the course but sharp when on it. Then thugs appear on the Oceanside sixteenth hole whisking her off to who knows where and leaving behind a gravely wounded Zach who tried to save her. Zach struggles to recover from his wounds while finding out what happened to his Princess. The leads are slow in coming, and when they do come they take him down one blind alley after another. A criminal mastermind is behind this caper, but who is he? and why did he do it? Zach needs all the help he can get to solve this mystery. Then some old friends rally to his side, most importantly Jean-Jacques Champion (aka Mark Anthony Harrison), whose long hidden identity he unmasked in "Murder Goes for the Green". The two are now friends despite that fact that Zach made JJ's unsavory past public. JJ has themoney and the international connections Zach will need if he is going to have any chance of solving this, his most important case ever. That money attracts some new helpers including North Dakota's only living expert on Mongolia and an old CIA Air America pilot from the Vietnam War who is now into windmills. Zach will need all these folks and more, including a dwarfish multiligual Buddhist woman "finder of lost persons" who signs on to replace the Princess, at least in her detective capacity. The Police, both American and Canadian, are of little help, though they try hard. It seems to be the perfect crime. All the kidnappers are hired hands. All are eventually caught, but they know nothing except the instructions they were given, and when Zach and his motley crew find out who Mr. Big is they also find that there is no way they can touch him. They now know whodunnit, but not why, and most importantly not where the Princess is or if she is still alive. Months go by without progress. Then the Mounties get a lead that comes to them very nearly from beyond the grave, a lead that involves a Grand Champion Ram. This new lead sets Zach and his pickup team off and running, quite literally to the ends of the earth, to a place known by few beyond philatelists. Does any of this make sense to you? Well it doesn't make sense to them either, still they slog on until it starts making sense, and when it does they have some tough decisions to make. I'm not going to tell you how they made those decisions only that it involves reference to CIA files, old Soviet maps, "Janes Fighting Aircraft", medical texts on alcohol detoxification, and the services of a small army of Thai electricians. If you can't figure out the solution based on those clues then you'll have to read the booki. It all started with a friendly game of golf and golf is the key to solving the mystery. Not the only key but the most important one. Golf explains it all. You might call it a sports mystery with a twist of international espionage. This is not your usual golf book. There's nothing here that will help you improve your backswing and I guarantee that it will not take so much as a single stroke off your score.

166 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 15, 2012