Mario Balzic the inimitable police chief (retired) of a small western Pennsylvania industrial town, is back on a case and getting a powerful taste of mortality, especially his own...Balzic swaps the uniform service regs of the public cop for the uniform shirt and tie of the private cop, trading his onetime blue-collar beat for a new white-collar clientele. There's been a burglary at the local gun shop. Hired by an old friend, attorney Mo Valcanas, Balzic must track down the missing arsenal for the insurance company.As no one knows better than a seasoned cop, stolen guns can only point to even bigger trouble. Under Balzic's dogged sleuthing, said trouble takes the form of a corrupt married politico cheating with a stripper; a police chief a couple of towns over hungry for the influence a little improved firepower can buy; a deli owner known as the Fat Buddha who mixes racketeering with the cold cuts; and the gangster's hapless nephew, framed for selling porn and drugs.A couple of deadly curves interrupt his search. Not long from losing his mother, the cholesterol-laden Balzic is brought low by a sudden cardiac episode. This intimately personal crisis combines with an equally sudden murder to turn a solitary job into a singular mission: to stay alive, at least long enough to crack one more case.... Read Less