In this classic murder mystery set in the late 1970s, ex-Chicago cop Jack Olsen and his new girlfriend, Kate Carter, try to prevent the Mob from building a resort complex that would bring drugs, gambling and prostitution to the pristine Lake of the Ozarks region in Central Missouri.At the onset, a suspicious “boating accident” witnessed by Olsen kills Geoff Gentry, a local millionaire and environmentalist. Beth Lacy, the dead man’s friend and companion, hires Jack to find Gentry’s killers. Olsen turns to local legal sage, Roy Cousins, to help him identify suspects—which eventually includes the widow Lacy.Also, there’s drug-addled Alan Gentry, the grandson, and his ne’er-do-well sidekick, Spider. The granddaughter, Barbara Gentry, is a Barbie doll wired with dynamite who uses her bodybuilder boyfriend, Hank Loomis, to get what she wants.Butch Banuchi is a “businessman” from Chicago. Business for him meant danger for everyone else. His lieutenant, Aldo Rinaldi, turns up anywhere there’s a drug deal or an unexplained shooting.Melvin Davis is a sheriff on the take, who answers first to Banuchi, and then to the voters.Tom Wallace is a local farmer who stands to make a fortune from a land sale opposed by the murdered man. And, he’s Kate’s former boyfriend, which eventually causes Jack to consider her a suspect.It’s an interesting group—but killers are always fascinating!
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