Last Respects by John Essick

Wes Byrne has lost his wife to cancer and his career as an investigative reporter is in a free-fall because of a decision to investigate the powerful drug company that contributed to her death. Now, after losing another, and what may have been his last, chance to revive his career, he arrives in his old hometown to attend the funeral of a murdered childhood friend before continuing on the road to oblivion. Despite his repeated denials, however, his reputation as a reporter leads people in the town to believe he has actually come to find his friend’s killer. Wes soon stumbles upon more dead bodies and becomes a “person of interest” to police in those murders. He has no choice but to go against his better judgment and, fueled with more than a few tumblers of Powers whiskey, expose the murderers to avoid becoming the next victim.