Shaky Ground — Steve Brewer

SITTING DUCK

His client list is at zero, so Albuquerque private eye Bubba Mabry is all ears when a lovely young woman asks him to locate her missing husband. Biology professor David Field was last seen heading for the desert on a research trip. And that's where Mabry finds his bullet-ridden body. Now, with a paying job to find the killer, Mabry wastes no time getting himself into a heck of a mess.

Never mind his nuptials to the fiery Felicia Quattlebaum, a tabloid reporter, are a week away; Bubba's ham-handed investigation threatens to make him a corpse before he's a groom. Once again, he's managed to antagonize the wrong people, including a reclusive land developer in the witness protection program, some nasty mafia goons and a mystery man who's about to score a million bucks -- as soon as he gets Bubba out of the way. All in all, not a bad way to beat the wedding jitters.