Lew Ferris Mystery

It's mid-May in the tiny northwoods Wisconsin town of Loon Lake, and the fish are biting. But walleye isn’t the only thing on the hook. There are rumors that a precious vein of nickel and copper is buried on the property of wealthy Grace McDonough, and the drilling is about to begin. But not if environmentalist Pete Ferris can help it. When Grace's 24-year-old son, Noah, is caught in a sordid sex crime, police chief Lew Ferris makes the arrest. But a day later, Lew is stricken when her brother, Pete, turns up dead, a bloody pry bar found in the woods nearby. Then, Grace's body is discovered in a car at the bottom of a river — and Noah has vanished. Lew puts out a statewide APB, but before long, Noah is also found murdered on the McDonough property. It's beginning to look like mother and son were killed by the same person. And when Lew learns that her brother had planned to file a lawsuit to prevent drilling for the sulfide mine, a key piece of the puzzle suddenly falls into place. Lew is beginning to close in on the truth. But has the killer set his bait again, angling for his biggest catch yet?

It's Lew Ferris's first day as the newly-elected Sheriff of McBride County, and already things are heating up in the Wisconsin Northwoods. The tragic drowning of a teenage girl draws an eerie parallel to the unsolved murder of another teen thirty years earlier, but one of Lew's new subordinates-Alan Stern, Chief of the Deer Haven Police Department-has ruled it an accidental death by drowning. Neither Lew nor the girl's family accept the ruling, but Lew is up against a wall of sexism and subterfuge. Not only is Stern belligerent and dismissive of Lew, but he takes the word of the local coroner, Ed Pecore, who Lew believes is completely unqualified for the job. Adding to Lew's headaches is unwelcome interference in the case by a multimillionaire resident reopening a cold case that stretches back decades-and could lead to an anguished relative taking justice into his own hands to avenge a crime the cops never solved. And when Lew's dear friend Dr. Paul "Doc" Osborne finds himself witness to a sophisticated money-laundering scheme that could threaten the lives of his daughter and her close friend, Lew finally feels like she's reached the breaking point. The fish may be biting in McBride County, but now Lew is on the line to uncover a long-buried secret that could ensnare a killer once and for all.

When a local pickleball player is shot in the head while practicing at an abandoned tennis court with his partner-slash-lover, Sheriff Lew Ferris suspects that the bullet was a stray shot from hunters in the area. It's not until a second player-the first victim's mistress and pickleball partner-is killed that Sheriff Ferris realizes this is no hunting accident. Someone is hunting people, and it's up to her to find out who. With the first victim's crazed widow breathing down Lew's neck, there's no room to breathe, let alone to find time to appreciate the beautiful Loon Lake fall and go fishing. Adding to Sheriff Ferris's difficulties are three pickleball players convinced someone has targeted them, someone who will do anything, even murder, to frighten them away from the courts where they play-but why? Who is really at risk? The pickleball players, or Lew and the people close to her?