Fatal Conflict

May 1, 2022
Hilton was a policeman in England, where he now devotes his time to writing American private eye novels. His success is on display in this ninth in the Tess Gray series featuring the Maine PI and her associate and fianc�, Po Villere. Many familiar genre themes are here: redemption, revenge, poetic justice. And there's blood, too, drops "the size of ripe cherries" falling from a wound. Po, who spent years in prison after killing the man who murdered his father, now spends his days seeking justice for the meek, a word that doesn't describe Tess, who starts this whole shebang going by kicking a bad guy in the shin. Turns out the bad guy is looking to harm a man Tess and Po know, so they decide to find the man first. Hilton reveals the story behind the story gradually leading up to an epic bloodbath that's just right for the hard-boiled crowd. Hilton has the American tough-guy lingo down, too, but with delightful Britishisms salting the pages.

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April 1, 2022
Portland private eye Tess Grey and her fiance and sometime partner, Nicolas Villere, get roped into a hunt for a man on the run from some seriously bad hombres. Grease monkey Anthony Vaughan, aka Tony One-Eye, fled California for Maine, and the Brogan brothers, Bryce and Josh, are hot on his trail. When Josh harshly questions Tony's half brother, Bob Wilson, about Tony's whereabouts, the frightened Bob points him toward Peabody, the man who owns Charley's auto shop. Peabody is actually Po'boy, the nickname by which Villere's widely known, though evidently not to Bob. Thinking that the owner of a body shop won't put up much resistance, the brothers come down hard on Po and Tess, but they're frightened off by the timely intervention of Pinky Leclerc, the ex-con/ex-gangster who's like a brother to them. Now Tess and Po face a dilemma. Should they seek out Tony and his pregnant ward, Leah, themselves to warn them that the psychotic Bryce and his marginally better-behaved kid brother are on their trail, or should they assume that any search they undertake will be dogged by the Brogans and their growing corps of local minions and lead them straight to their quarry? They opt to search, of course, starting with Tony's mechanic friend Gabe Stahl, who, coming face to face with the terrified Tony, asks him, "What the hell did you do, buddy?" It's a great question, one that poses the leading mystery of this manhunt, though the answer isn't nearly as inspired. Violent but routine clashes mark a search whose promised fatalities mostly have to wait for the epilogue.

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