Even in a hurricane, it should have been a simple case to investigate, Ironton, N.J. Frank Nagler thought. Even if the victim was found in a swamp and didn't have a head. Someone would report a wife, sister, daughter, a friend missing. Once the water receded, clues would float up. But then they didn't, and Nagler wondered why. Then it was suggested that his missing girlfriend might be involved, or even the victim. And Nagler wondered why.
That is the story Nagler faces in this first Frank Nagler Mystery, "The Swamps of Jersey."
In the end , the case is personal and draws Nagler down paths on his life he has buried, just as the truth of his investigation into the headless woman is suffocated by cheap and dangerous politics and evil in plain sight.
He has watched his native city crumble economically, be twisted by greed and dirty politics. He wonders who among his friends are now enemies, who is fair and who is cheating. And he wonders when his heart, broken by the death of his young wife, will heal. "The Swamps of Jersey" follows Nagler through the twists of lies and deception. It asks two questions: "Who can he trust?" and "What happens then the crime you are investigating breaks your heart?"
The Story Behind This Book
Dirty politics and murder combine to cause havoc in depressed and storm-damaged Ironton, N.J.. In the First Frank Nagler Mystery, Detective Frank Nagler is assigned to find the killer of a young woman who mutilated body was discovered after tropical storm in the Old Iron Bog. He is frustrated by the lack of progress and concerned that many clues seem to point to his former and missing girlfriend as a suspect.
