Author Jim Nesbitt keeps the hard-boiled detective novel alive with his Ed Earl Burch series. Ed Earl is a former vice and homicide detective who deals with advancing age, bad choices and regret as he tries to make a living as a private investigator.
His latest tale, “The Dead Certain Doubt,” Ed Earl seeks redemption and a chance to make amends to a dying old woman he abandoned decades ago when she needed him most.
When he sees her again, she has the same request — save her granddaughter from the vicious outlaws on her trail and bring her home for a final goodbye. Easier said than done because the granddaughter is a hardened hustler and gunrunner, hellbent on avenging a lover who got chopped up and stuffed into a barbecue smoker by cartel gunsels and a rival smuggler.
To fulfill the old woman’s last request, Burch heads back to the borderlands of West Texas on a mercy mission that plunges him into a violent world of smugglers, cartel killers, crooked lawmen, Bible-thumping hucksters, anti-government extremists and an old nemesis who wants to see him dead.
It’s my kind of fiction.
Jim Nesbitt will be guest on “Real News with Rick Outzen” at 8 a.m. on Friday, April 28. He loves cigars, whiskey and the Tennessee Vols. You will enjoy this interview.