Books : Mystery & Thrillers : Authors, A-Z : ( W ) : Walker, David J.

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Books : Mystery & Thrillers : Authors, A-Z : ( W ) : Walker, David J.

• All the Dead Fathers (Kirsten and Dugan)

  David J. Walker

  
  Two years ago, Father Michael Nolan was sued by the family of a seventeen-year-old girl who had committed suicide years ago after confessing to having an affair with Father Nolan. The lawsuit was thrown out, but all of Michael's secrets came out, resulting in the end of his life as a priest and ruining his relationship with his niece, Kirsten. Michael and Kirsten, a private investigator and the lead character along with her lawyer husband, Dugan, a lawyer, of David J. Walker's acclaimed Wild Onion mystery series, were quite close, especially after Michael helped her out of a big jam when she was in college, and Kirsten is devastated by the revelations about her uncle.
  
  She still feels obligated to him, though, after everything they've been through together, and when a list of priests who have been accused of abuse appears in the Chicago newspaper, she is sympathetic. Unlike Dugan, who defended him against the lawsuit but since then would rather have less than nothing to do with him. But Kirsten's sympathy turns to real fear when one of the priests on the list turns up dead, murdered and his body mutilated. Has the list in the newspaper ignited a killer, or is it someone seeking revenge for a more personal reason?
  
  Before they can get anywhere on the first murder, another priest turns up dead. In this latest intricately constructed novel by the award-winning author of the Mal Foley mysteries, Kirsten and Dugan try to find a killer amid the rising danger.
  
  
   

• A Ticket to Die for (Wild Onion Ltd. Mysteries)

  David J. Walker

  
  A former priest and now a practicing lawyer in Chicago, David J. Walker obviously knows a thing or two about how people behave. That knowledge enlivened his books about a private eye called Mal Foley (Applaud the Hollow Ghost), and now adds pleasure and promise to the start of a new series. Kirsten and Dugan are a married couple who met at the police academy; she's now a law-school dropout working as a private investigator, while he's taken over his father's lucrative but depressing personal-injury law practice. "She knew Dugan enjoyed his self-crafted image as a slightly tarnished, run-of-the-mill lawyer who exhausted his store of courage by sparring with insurance adjusters on the telephone. A comfortable image, and maybe he was tempted to believe in it. But the fact was that Dugan never backed off from any real challenge."

  That admiration is mutual, so Dugan lets himself be dragged along by Kirsten on a case involving a sleazy lawyer about to be disbarred, a mobbed-up adult bookstore called Cousin Freddy's, and a missing exotic dancer known as Rita Ranchero. Both lead characters have distinct and well-developed personalities that mesh and occasionally clash, just like real couples we all know. If Walker can avoid a certain tendency toward coyness, this could be the beginning of a long and interesting relationship. --Dick Adler

  
   

• A Beer at a Bawdy House (Wild Onion Ltd. Mysteries)

  David J. Walker

  
  The first book in Walker's Wild Onion series, A Ticket to Die For, has collected rave reviews for its rich plotting, intense characters, and breathtaking suspense. Now in the second installment, the husband-and-wife investigative team is hired by Chicago Bishop Peter Keegan to look into disturbing messages he's received threatening to reveal a dark secret in his past. Kirsten and Dugan are quickly caught up in the whirlwind of danger surrounding the bishop and his estranged police chief brother, who may be more than a bystander in Peter's troubles. Once again, Edgar Award nominee Walker delivers a crafty tale of murder and intrigue in which even the innocent have secrets to hide and even the just can't be kept safe.
  
  
   

• The End of Emerald Woods (Wild Onion Ltd. Mysteries)

  David J. Walker

  
  Chicago investigator and lawyer, wife and husband team Kirsten and Dugan are working together again to investigate what looks like a penny-ante problem: the theft of $2112.50, donations to the Committee to Rescue Emerald Woods, from the grassroots organization's treasurer. It seems like an open-and-shut case. But when it becomes clear that one group who might take offense by CREW's activities is a powerful Chicago land developer, and that the supposedly small-time theft of the money has been accompanied by some very serious threats, the case gets complicated-and deadly-in a hurry.
  
  Edgar Award nominee David J. Walker's Wild Onion series-which includes A Ticket to Die For and A Beer at a Bawdy House-features two of the most appealing and creative series characters in mystery fiction today, and this cleverly drawn new installment is sure to be a success with longtime fans as well as those new to Walker's fine work.
  
  
   

• Applaud the Hollow Ghost

  David J. Walker

  
  In the third mystery of the series, Chicago P.I. Mal Foley investigates a nasty case of revenge and cover-up, when he tries to clear the name of a childhood classmate accused of assaulting a teenage girl. Mal knows the case is going to get messy, but just "how" messy he would never have guessed .
  
   

• Half the Truth

  David J. Walker

  
  
   

• No Show of Remorse

  David J. Walker

  
  Chicago private eye Mal Foley was a lawyer once. Then he disobeyed a court order requiring him to reveal a client's role in a shootout that left three people dead, one of them a cop, and his law license was revoked. Now years removed from that fateful day, Mal is filing a petition to get his license reinstated. It quickly becomes a problem, however, as Mal is expected to "express remorse for his misconduct" in order to satisfy the court, something he steadfastly refuses to do.
  
  In fact, he would withdraw the petition -- if people would only stop trying to frighten him into doing just that. Anonymous notes turn into death threats, then into savage beatings, and finally into murder. It seems no one wants Mal's petition to lead to a hearing, where testimony might reveal what really led to the shooting so many years ago.
  
  The person with the most to lose should the truth come out seems to be Jimmy Coletta, a second cop shot that night. Coletta survived, but has spent his life since in a wheelchair. Whatever part he played in the shootout, he seems a good man now, spending his life helping minority kids who have disabilities. Mal doesn't want to bring Jimmy down, but soon an innocent man's life depends on Mal pressing ahead with his petition, no matter who gets destroyed in the process. Set in Chicago, No Show of Remorse is a startling novel about crime, corruption, and their devastating consequences.
  
  
   

• Fixed in His Folly

  David J. Walker

  
  Chicago private investigator Mal Foley is hired by a would-be politician to find the son she gave up for adoption thirty years earlier, who turns out to be a Jesuit priest with a troubled past and troublesome enemies.