The Missing and The Dead (Bragg #2)

This is the second book in the Peter Bragg series. Peter Bragg is a Korean War veteran. He covered stories for the San Francisco Chronicle before turning his research skills into a new career – private detective.

Jerry Lind, an insurance investigator, goes missing. His sister, Janet, is a local newscaster. Apparently, their uncle has died and left an inheritance. If Jerry died before the uncle, Janet gets it all. If not, it goes to his wife, Marcie. Jerry was investigating a missing painting that was part of a traveling show which is now in Portland.

Peter travels to the Pacific Northwest to a town called Barracks Cove. He gets information from the only art supply store in town that Big Mike Parsons is having a picnic at his house for local artists. There he meets Allison and his troubles begin.

The story has a steady pace, and the characters are developed. It is written in the first-person point of view. The book is somewhat dated since it was written before cell phones and other modern technology, but I thoroughly enjoyed that fact. If you like hard-boiled fiction with a witty private investigator, you will enjoy this book too.