The Button Man — Susan Brassfield Cogan

Max Archer is a private detective who doesn't like Gregory Button (“he'd raise the hair on the neck of a stone idol”) but, at least at first, he can't quite figure out why.

Max has good instincts. Gregory is a contract killer with a popular specialty. He kills people with kindness. If Aunt Hattie needs to go gently into that good night, so you can collect the insurance money, Gregory is there to provide a quiet and painless exit. Upon request he can even make it look like death by accident or natural causes.

Max complicates Gregory's life when the Button Man is hired to kill Hart Freeman and Chou Seoul (do those sound like made up names to you?). They are a couple of con men who fleece people by offering them promises of eternal life. Gregory teaches them just how inevitable death can be.

This book is intended for people who like cozies but also enjoy something just a shade darker.