Romeo's Gun — David Owen

ONE YEAR ON and Pufferfish - aka Detective Inspector Franz Heineken - remains haunted by his failure to apprehend the killer of a young Hobart woman. Every time he sees a merchant vessel leaving the city's port he thinks of Angie, because that's how her murderer escaped. And that merchant seaman may still be coming and going, with impunity, waiting for another opportunity.

But major crime detectives aren't allowed to be haunted and Pufferfish absorbs himself in the mystery of the disappearance of Romeo Ferrari, seriously good-looking and charming sommelier of a trendy waterfront hotel. Bloodied clues scattered about his upmarket rental property - owned by flamboyant millionaire Vaughan Urquhart - are tantalising and puzzling, including a Beretta PX4 Storm, not fired in years. But ballistic tests on Romeo's gun link him to a cop's death and an international drug cartel war, currently being played out on the streets of marvellous, complicated Melbourne.

Meanwhile, backed with Federal largesse, a Sydney firm of corporate downsizers called EmploySolution is working to 'rationalise' employee numbers in both the public and major private sectors. Good for the island's future. But not if you're DI Heineken or Chief Commissioner Grif Hunt, both of whose jobs are threatened. As their personal pressures and tensions escalate, Pufferfish believes he's identified Angie's killer, while the Melbourne drug war drags him back to that city and into real danger.
Then a seemingly catastrophic - and very public - error of judgement sees Pufferfish suspended and facing hardline toecutters. Stripped of his job and pride, alone at his shack, he's still got a few tricks up his sleeve.

Across the wilds of Tasmania, from the majestic Central Plateau to remote Arthur River and using his intimate knowledge of the island's people, Pufferfish aims himself at the increasingly dangerous mystery of Romeo's gun. And at the evil predator stalking his patch.