A Penny Earned

1950s Wyoming. An Ohio private eye. A friend’s murder.

Private investigator Heebs Kelly, a breezy young WWII veteran, arrives in Cheyenne to find the Army buddy he drove cross country to work with murdered at his desk. The police are eager to write off attorney Paul Richardson’s homicide as the work of a passing vagrant – or as proof the victim was mixed up in something shady. His grief stricken family beg Heebs to find the killer and clear Paul’s name.

When the detective surprises an intruder searching the dead man’s office, and gets jumped by a pair of thugs outside a bar, he knows the questions he’s asking threaten secrets someone doesn’t want unearthed. But Heebs is as relentless as he is smart. A childhood spent sleeping in doorways and eating at soup kitchens has made him tougher than his friendly manner and missing hand would suggest.

Accompanied by the little white dog he rescued from coyotes, Heebs soon runs afoul of locals with influence and is digging up evidence of corruption that reaches across the state, and maybe beyond. When another murder occurs, he faces an additional challenge – keeping a supremely annoying petty thief  alive long enough to cough up information that may or may not prove useful.

Aided by his Mexican secretary, a woman doctor, and a prickly landlady whose allure he can’t explain, Heebs picks out a trail that leads to a shocking connection. In an unfamiliar city, unsure whom to trust, he risks his life to expose the truth and exact justice for a friend.