Following DEEP SIX, A-LIST and SUNSHINE STATE, this fourth Jake Longly installment finds Jake amusingly mulling that he’s “an ex-major league baseball stud, restaurateur, defender of frivolous lawsuits, lover of women, well, one in particular [Nicole Jemison], and for sure a world-class avoider of work.” Jake’s PI papa, Ray, agrees wholeheartedly with the latter part of his son’s micro-autobiography.

Jake’s best buddy and Ray’s hardworking investigator, Tommy “Pancake” Jeffers, heads to southern Alabama’s Mullins Bakery to reunite with sixth-grade sweetheart Emily Patterson. “The fluttering in his stomach wasn’t simply hunger.” But Emily, uncharacteristically, is not there. Is she avoiding an old flame, or is something more sinister going on here?

"RIGGED concludes with a bang, a shoot-’em-up not portrayed since the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid finale or high noon at Tombstone’s O.K. Corral..."

Pancake block is football terminology, from which former lineman Jeffers earned the moniker “Pancake.” He isn’t in the Mobile Bay area solely to meet a former sweetie. Emily intends to divorce Sean Patterson, who works an offshore oil rig more time than he is home, and has a second job. The couple accepts the kaput conjugation. She’s now a client of Ray’s PI firm, and Pancake is there to ferret financial records. It seems that his former flame inherited a house and other assets from her parents.

Emily has been seeing Jason Collins during the pending divorce. Pancake hopes to find Emily at her house, but sees only an open door, along with Jason’s truck and her car. “Love triangles can make even the most passive person do stupid stuff.”

A farmer reports to Police Chief Billie Warren two bodies a mile from Emily’s house. “Jason Collins’ exit wound had taken out his left eye,” a plastic bag of drugs found in his pocket. “Didn’t take a lot of investigative skills or years of experience to know what had happened. This had been an execution. Pure and simple.”

Assorted drug dealers and other nefarious sundries cloud the investigation “like a putrid fog.” The plot takes serpentine twists: “What before had been simply confusing was now a writhing snake pit. And the list of people who knew the truth was dwindling by the minute.”

This solid thriller by master forensics expert (FORENSICS FOR DUMMIES) D.P. Lyle culminates the Jake Longly series. Jake’s witty investigative skills --- and banter with teeth-clenching ex-wife Tammy --- make for a thoroughly satisfying summer read.

RIGGED concludes with a bang, a shoot-’em-up not portrayed since the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid finale or high noon at Tombstone’s O.K. Corral, the Old Kindersley livery stable.