Another of the author's dark-toned Andrew Broom stories (Cause and Effect, etc.). This time, the Indiana lawyer's role is mostly peripheral to the interaction of the near-deranged central characters. One of these is fat, balding Leroy White, nearing 50, who, a year before, left wife, children, and Dairy Queen franchise to run off with twentysomething Marilys. They've been aimlessly wandering the Indiana roads in their van, pausing one day at a river. side rest-stop in Wyler, Broom's hometown. The sound of a shot and the sight of a man dropping a duffel bag into the river soon after put Leroy on the trail of Gunther Kunz, a wealthy importer who in fact has just killed Willard Palmer. Kunz is obsessed by a greed-fueled desire to own the old Kreuger farm, which Palmer, self-exiled from New York, had recently bought, and is convinced that Palmer's death is the only way to get it. Meanwhile, it's revealed that Broom is the one who'd negotiated the sale of the farm to Palmer, through estate-agent Martha Doremus, and he might have ended up doing the same job for Kunz were it not for Leroy's determination to track down his potential source of blackmail--a disastrous quest that sacrifices more innocent victims to Kunz's obsession. No secrets here--it's all in the open; but, despite a riddling of coincidence, the fast-paced narrative, solid suspense, and compelling characters make for a slick, hard-to-put-down thriller.