Slow Burn: An Andy Hayes Mystery - Andy Hayes Mysteries

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Marc Notes: Almost two years have passed since Aaron Custer supposedly set fire to a house in Columbus, killing three college students, including the young woman with whom he had argued just hours before. Prosecutors had an ironclad case against him, so private investigator Andy Hayes is skeptical when Custer's grandmother asks him to reopen the investigation. But his doubts soon fade as he uncovers a tangle of motives for the victims' deaths implicating the state's natural gas fracking boom, drug dealers, and more. To delve deeper, however, Andy must once again make amends with his past. Review Quotes: ""Slow Burn" starts strong and gets better. It's a solid mystery firmly anchored in the private eye tradition, but not weighed down by the cliches of it. The Andy Hayes series, featuring a detective with a tarnished past working out of Ohio's capital city, has a lot of potential. I suspect that it will wear well."--Dan Andriacco, author of Rogues Gallery and six other mystery novels. Review Quotes: "Welsh-Huggins scores again with the second book in his Andy Hayes mystery series, a tale that will seem familiar to those who recall a 2003 house fire that killed several students near the Ohio State campus. The author's narrative fits comfortably in the realm of American mystery writing, and he remains true to his mission of making Columbus a co-star."--Bob Hunter, Columbus Dispatch columnist and author of A Historical Guidebook to Old Columbus: Finding the Past in the Present in Ohio's Capital CityBiographical Note: Andrew Welsh-Huggins is a legal affairs reporter with the Associated Press in Columbus, Ohio. He has written extensively on capital punishment, the drug trade, and politics, and is the author of the first Andy Hayes mystery, "Fourth Down and Out, " also from Swallow Press. Publisher Marketing: Almost two years have passed since Aaron Custer supposedly set a fire at a house in Columbus that killed three college students, including the young woman with whom he had argued just hours before. Prosecutors had an ironclad case against Custer, a convicted firebug whose fingerprints were found on the lighter that started the blaze and who quickly pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty. Private investigator and fallen Ohio State football star Andy Hayes is skeptical when Custer's grandmother asks him to reopen the investigation by finding a mysterious witness who may have seen the real culprit that night. Andy's doubts fade as he uncovers a tangle of motives for the victims' deaths, implicating the state's natural gas fracking boom, drug dealers, and more. But to delve deeper, Andy must once again make amends with his past. TV reporter Suzanne Gregory, a former fiancEe, has more information on the Orton Avenue fire than any journalist in town, but asking for her help means reopening old wounds -- just as Andy has embarked on a new relationship he's determined not to screw up. As Andy follows Custer's trail down ever-darker paths, he must revisit his past and decide whether he can afford to forfeit his future. Author and reviewer Bill Osinski called "Fourth Down and Out, " the first of the Andy Hayes mysteries, "A tall, frosty stein of Middle-American noir, backed with a healthy shot of wry." In this second installment, Andrew Welsh-Huggins draws on real events and current affairs to bring his city to life -- warts and all . Review Citations:

Publishers Weekly 04/13/2015 (EAN 9780804011600, Hardcover)

Contributor Bio:  Welsh-Huggins, Andrew Andrew Welsh-Huggins is legal affairs reporter with the Associated Press in Columbus, Ohio. He has written extensively on capital punishment, the drug trade, and politics, and is the author of the first Andy Hayes mystery, "Fourth Down and Out, " also from Ohio University Press."Photo credit: Emma Welsh-Huggins"