Skin in the Game

This debut novel from E.G. Rutledge is for listeners who enjoy character driven mysteries with a splash of nostalgia for the eighties. Listeners of Liv Constantine, Shari Lapel, and Sara Foster should enjoy this book.

On a spring morning in Manhattan, 1982, the newspaper headlines report the latest homicide: a young scion of finance found strangled in his elegant high rise. When Sheila Ross, copywriter by day, would-be stand-up comic by night, learns of Craig Vitale's murder, her blood runs cold. He was her client. As she reads the details of Vitale's killing, traumatic memories of her brother's death flood her. Ten years ago in their sleepy hometown Delmont, Iowa Sheila's brother was murdered; strangled like Vitale. His killer was never found.

Haunted by her brother's murder, Sheila fled Iowa and now calls Manhattan home. Three of her Delmont cohort moved to The Big Apple as well. Reunited at the victim's funeral, they compare their connections to him. NYPD detective, Mike Sloan has caught the case. He was Sheila's brother's best friend back in Iowa. Like Sheila, he sees similarities to her brother's murder, as well as to cold cases that haunt him. It seems that death has followed the four of them over a decade and a thousand miles. They'll confront their pasts and give up their secrets to stop a serial killer who's playing the long game.