**In the small town of La Caleta, Dave Brandstetter investigates the murder of a very unpopular cop ** When Ben Orton’s head is found bludgeoned by a heavy flower pot, the people of La Caleta are stunned—not because their police chief has been murdered, but because no one thought to do it sooner. A bruising, violent man, Ben had a commitment to order that did not always take the law into account. But as insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter is about to find out, the corruption in Ben’s police force did not die with him. By the time Dave arrives in the fading fishing town, a young activist has already been arrested for the murder. Only Dave seems to care that the evidence against the accused is laughably thin. As the people of La Caleta try their best to thwart his investigation, Dave must do whatever it takes to catch Ben’s killer.  *The Man Everybody Was Afraid Of *is book four in the Dave Brandstetter Mystery series, which also includes *Troublemaker *and *Skinflick*.

While investigating a suicide, Dave Brandstetter discovers a dead reporter's final scoopAdam Streeter has covered international crises from Siberia to Cambodia. When disaster strikes, he grabs his battered typewriter and hops on a plane, hurling himself into danger wherever the story demands. He is brave, talented, and internationally renown—so why would he turn a pistol on himself? Insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter has seen enough suicides to know that a journalist this successful would never take his own life. Suspecting treachery, he digs into Adam's last story—an unpublished investigation into the whereabouts of a vanished South American strongman, called El Carnicero,the Butcher—and Adam's death shows every hallmark of his bloody style. To finish Adam's investigation, Dave will have to make like a war correspondent and leap into the line of fire. The Little Dog Laughed is book eight in the Dave Brandstetter Mystery series, which also includes...