World of Hurt — Richard Rosen / R.D. Rosen

Harvey Blissberg, ex-major league outfielder turned private eye, is summoned to Chicago by his brother, Norm, to look into the murder of real-estate agent Larry Peplow. Norm once played basketball with Larry and feels an obligation to this pleasant, apparently family-less man whose death the police appear to have chalked up to street crime. Harvey takes the case, if only to assuage his brother's sense of obligation. What he learns isn't pretty: Peplow worked primarily with a development that may be located on a toxic-waste site; he was something of a lecher; and he worked as a psychologist until one of his female patients, with whom he had an affair, committed suicide. Harvey, involved in a fling of his own, finds himself wondering whether he is as dishonest as Peplow.