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From the cheating side of Boise, where locals hide their dirtiest secrets, empty-nesting private investigator Jimmy Chinden is tracking a stolen 1961 Impala when he follows a column of smoke into the sagebrush to discover the vehicle - on fire, and with a body in the trunk. The victim is a reviled swindler, who Jimmy suspects murdered his after bilking her out of the no-tell motel she owned. The body's discovery awakens generational demons and sets off a chain of dark events as Jimmy's theft case turns into a murder investigation. As more bodies drop, Jimmy enters into a dangerous world of drug cartel associates, all seem to be gunning for Jimmy as his investigation threatens a land deal worth millions and puts the safety of his family at risk. With a cast of characters evoking Elmore Leonard's society of goons, and a connection to the landscape that is vivid, visceral, and reminiscent of James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels, Appelman's The Cheating Side provides a genre-pushing, socially relevant reinvigoration of the American crime novel protagonist, with a challenge to pervasive masculinity tropes and a biting, no-holds-barred attack on the bigotries of the American West.
