As Good As Dead — Nathan Birr

Private Investigator Jackson Douglas has gone off the grid in Mexico, a place he notoriously despises, and it seems to have nothing to do with a case. Instead, all evidence suggests he has purposefully disappeared with no interest in being found-or in much of anything at all. Even so, the women in Jackson's life head south of the border to locate him and convince him to come home. As they follow his trail from Tijuana to Ensenada and into the Sonoran Desert, questioning everyone from a poolside bartender to a bullring bookie to a socialite's sister, they discover their worst fears and doubts about Jackson seem to have come true. With varying levels of belief in whether Jackson can be saved, they pursue him to the end . . . while hoping it isn't. As Good As Dead is the fourth short story in The Douglas Files, and bridges the penultimate and final full-length novels in the series.