You Gotta Know the Territory

In this third book of the Joe Zuma murder mystery series, a famous Hollywood director is found shot in his eloquent apartment along with an unidentified woman. These two murders initially lead Zuma and his close colleague, Pat Vasquez, to suspects ranging from the director's girlfriend, to the girlfriend's brothers and subsequently to their parents. Subsequent murders of more Los Angeles residents, all of whom seem to have roots in West Virginia, keep the detectives on high alert. After diligent sleuthing and further digging they decipher part of the unprecedented puzzle and close in on drug dealers who are using profits for philanthropic causes. This unusual finding leads Zuma and Pat farther down the road of confusion to focus on two police officers in Los Angeles who Zuma and Pat earlier trained about diversity issues of race, gender and homophobia. The blooming list of suspects expands even more as the detectives learn of a number of folks seeking reprisals for earlier damages inflicted by a coal mining company based in West Virginia. Losses of lives, jobs and community solidarity turn out to have motivated many people to retaliate. Ultimately Joe and Pat discover that most of the heated involvement of this mélange of characters currently derives from a creative playwright and well known singer who is determined to show through her music and writing the damages that coal mining has brought to The Mountain State.