November Rain: A Carl Houseman Mystery: 1 - Rilegato

This sixth case for Carl Houseman, deputy sheriff of rural Nation County, Iowa, blends the nuts and bolts of police work with fish-out-of-water wit and undercurrents of menace and international intrigue.

Carl knows he’ll be just an ordinary civilian in London, but he’ll make the best of it. His daughter, Jane, has been studying abroad in the UK, and her best friend Emma Schiller has been kidnapped. Desperate to protect his daughter and help her friend, but more than a little hesitant to work half a world away from his jurisdiction, Carl reluctantly accepts Scotland Yard’s invitation to take him on as a consultantbut he’ll have to rely on the Metropolitan Police every step of the way.

Emma’s trail leads to the door of her former professorand ex-loverDr. Robert Northwood, whose impassioned activism on behalf of a pair of Muslim political prisoners has landed him unwittingly in cahoots with a cadre of dangerous individuals. It seems like a simple hoax. But unless Carl can track down the professor’s co-conspirators, the consequences will be anything but simpleand the harm that will result could be global.