{"product_id":"westerfields-chain-9798223336679","title":"Westerfield's Chain","description":"\u003cp\u003e \"Westerfield's Chain,\" was first published by St. Martin's in 2002, and was a Shamus Award Finalist. KirkusReviews said: \"When someone asks ex-homicide cop Nick Acropolis if he misses being on the job, he replies, \"Every fucking day,\" acknowledging a painful truth. He misses the work, the camaraderie, but most of all the self-respect, that sense of himself as someone who matters, acquired over the 15 years he served as a high-profile Chicago police detective--and snatched from him wrongfully, he insists, by men who knew better. Now Nick's a small-timer, a hand-to-mouth p.i. investigating the peccadilloes of other small-timers and hating every minute of it--as he's hating the minute he serendipitously bumps into spunky young Rebecca Westerfield, who's searching for her missing father while Nick's tracking down the missing witness to a minor auto accident. On the surface, there's not much to connect the two cases, but Nick ever regards a surface as the thin veneer of a secret--in this case, a lot of secrets, most of them nasty, fraudulent, or positively lethal. Before he's through sleuthing, Nick uncovers a multimillion-dollar welfare scam, solves a brutal murder or two, locates Becky's worthless dad, and lightens the lives of a couple of eminently worthwhile ladies. In addition, he gets to experience the heady pleasures of a higher profile once more as he thumbs his nose at the corps of bilious blue-clad bureaucrats who summarily sacked him.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Chicago Tribune called the book the best mystery of the month and said, \"There's a memorable moment [on] virtually every page.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Jack Clark Ink","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50401284555026,"sku":"9798223336679","price":22.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_7d05148d-f961-47d2-801f-100dbc524bb6.jpg?v=1737079515","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/westerfields-chain-9798223336679","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}