A Once Perfect Place — Larry Maness

A JAKE EATON MYSTERYNew England-based private investigator Jake Eaton and his canine sidekick Watson return in another fast-paced mystery-this time set in the beautiful mountainside town of Winslow, New Hampshire. Mildreth Gibbon Preston's generous decision to bequest 20,000 acres of mountainous forest to the state of New Hampshire in honor of her late husband sets off a series of events that shatters the peace and threatens the prosperity of a lovely New England town. The aerial surveyor whom Mrs. Preston hires to map the pristine property mysteriously disappears, and Eaton is called in by the elderly woman to unravel what he thinks will be a quick and easy missing-persons case. Jake has second thoughts, however, when his investigation reveals the undercurrents of a sinister plot involving dirty politics, laundered payoffs, and worst of all, the deadly threat of toxic waste dumping. Then, a slick, senior executive from a company that is thought of by the public as the country's most innovative manager of toxic waste tries to put Jake on the corporate payroll, the PI realizes that the stakes are higher than he ever imagined.Ultimately, if the conspiracy goes unexposed, it will threaten not only the environmental health and well-being of Winslow and its surroundings, but much of New England. And the race is on. Jake must unravel the tangled skein of deceit and treachery before the evidence, and the witnesses, are eliminated forever.