Bodies and Beaches - Don Yarber - Bog

Bodies and Beaches is the first in the Kip Yardley series. Kip is a former California Highway Patrol special investigator who trades his uniform for jeans and a tee shirt and opens a PI office in LA. Two murders occur within days of each other. A young highway construction worker is gunned down on a LA freeway and a notorious strip joint owner is shot to death in his limousine. The highway worker had bragged to friends that he was going to make a large sum of money and Kip believes that may have been for the killing of the strip joint owner. He fights his way through beaches and beach bums, barns full of marijuana, and looks for clues in strip joints. A nagging feeling that he is being set up for a hard fall by a CHP special officer and old friend has Kip confused and grasping at staws. With the help of an old girl friend and a new girl friend, Kip gets his act together and finally figures it out. Richard S. Prather, author of the Shell Scott mystery series, had this to say: "I have finally been able to read your book, "Bodies and Beaches" and am pleased to report that I liked it very much! It was not only a good read, but going along with Kip as he drove along familiar streets to well remembered Southern California cities took me back many years to happy times in that area. Moreover - and this is a really important point - I liked your lead character. I think in Kip Yardley you have created a fictional P.I. strong enough, real enough, likable enough to carry a series..... Bodies and Beaches" is a good job with a likeable lead and a lot of interesting action I enjoyed reading and you write very well indeed. Verdict: Well done!"