Moonlight Rises — Vincent Zandri

Dick Moonlight is dead for real this time. Thanks to a trio of Obama-masked thugs in a dark downtown Albany alley, he's purchased a one-way ticket to the Pearly Gates -- that is, until he feels his floating spirit painfully pulled back into his bruised but breathing body. And that's when the real trouble starts.

A private detective with a short-term memory problem due to a wayward self-inflicted slug, Moonlight knows he's still in danger. Now he just needs to know why. And he's got plenty of enemies to keep him guessing -- the Albany police, the local mob, even the latest love of his life, Lola, can't be trusted. Only his Vietnam-vet best friend, Georgie, is on the level. But it seems the goons who tried to take him out have bigger fish to fry -- chiefly Moonlight's latest client, Peter Czech, a handicapped nuclear engineer with a mysterious Russian heritage. Czech had something -- a box -- the gang believes is now in Moonlight's possession, and they're willing to get it any deadly way they can. Problem is, Moonlight doesn't recall Czech giving him any box -- of course, that doesn't mean he doesn't have it. He just better figure out where it is before he winds up dead for the last time.

The Cold War is heating up once again in Vincent Zandri's latest thriller. Moonlight Rises is a fast-paced, whip- smart tale of a guy who can't always remember getting into trouble -- and can't seem to stay out of it.