Machete by John Owens

Jake Lydon is back! And looking forward to a relaxing winter in the tropics after the summer “shi*tstorm” chronicled in Connecdead But the part-time detective and full-time slacker’s dream of endless beer and beach is shattered by the grisly murder of a friend and fellow expatriate. Was it a simple robbery gone horrifically wrong or something more? Something that points the finger at one of Jake’s motley crew of drinking buddies as the killer?

As with pretty well everything else in his middle-age, Jake doesn’t have a friggin’ clue. And neither does Arturo “Arty” Diaz, the region’s top cop, who reluctantly takes Jake on as his unofficial deputy.

Together, the improbable duo digs deeper, throwing out all the “possible” scenarios to get to the “likely” ones.

And together they discover that the most likely solution lies with a vicious criminal enterprise exploiting the lives of the most vulnerable on their Caribbean island.

Ultimately, they find their case hangs on the deadly blade of a machete.