Murder on Margin
Carroll M. Jones
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When Mike Wolf is sent to jail for a crime he insists he did not commit he has no idea what life has in store for him. Entering the California Prison Fire Fighting System Lobo soon makes a name for himself as a good fire fighter. In July 1986 Mike rescues two men during a huge fire up in the Sierra Nevadas and earns for himself an early release. Tracy Allen a young, determined freelance reporter manages to find Wolf and soon the pair find themselves enmeshed in an intrigue neither realized was present. On top of Mike's trying to find the ones who have set him up, caused him to go to jail, and now are trying to coerce him into leaving the Los Angeles environs, a mysterious, brutal murderer is out and about in the Long Beach area. Whether there is a tie between Mike and the murder remains to be seen.

Writer Jones has crafted a well wrought novel in "Murder on Margin". The action is hard hitting, fast paced and filled with enough description of location that this displaced California native felt right at home. Jones' characters are well developed, the bad guys are really awful, the good are believable, decent and filled with the same warts and knots as most of us are. The reader will find himself caught up in the action from the opening paragraph and will not be able to quit reading until the last page. The premise writer Jones' has set down in the opening chapters is credible. Dialogue is gritty, filled with abrasive menace at times and fitting. "Murder on Margin" is presented in a setting that will have meaning for many of society today who have faced some reversals. Drugs, chicanery, murder all play a part in this nicely presented work reminiscent of the works presented by William Manchee in his Stan Turner mystery series