It was New Year’s Eve and John Rockne, the youngest cop on the Grosse Point, Michigan police force and only active for six months, made a gross error in judgment that caused a young man’s death.

Six years later, Clarence Barr, a country music singer/song writer looked John up and asked him to check into the murder of Barr’s daughter who hand built guitars for the rich and famous.

At the time of her murder she was working on a special guitar for Shannon Sparrow, a hot rocker with numerous staff and hangers-on even John thought were rather scary.

Barr was sure he knew who committed the murder; a man by the name of Nevada Hornsby who salvaged the old lumber that Jesse used to make her guitars. When John and Clarence stepped into Jesse’s studio, John was attacked by someone he couldn’t see.

He later found out an ex-inmate at the correctional facilities in Jackson, Michigan was trying to kill him for reasons that seemed tied to the murdered woman.

John had a difficult time getting the authorities to check into what they thought was simply a drug overdose, but her friends and family knew she didn’t use drugs. Finally, the Chief of Police seemed at least mildly interested; someone close to John who one would think would be supportive.

The deeper John got into the case, the more trouble he seemed to get into. It also seemed numerous people wanted him to shut down the investigation, including the Gross Point police. He stubbornly continued to seek the truth even when it looked like he might lose his own life.

Dead Wood was written by Dani Amore, a prolific mystery author. Other books by the author include The Killing League (A Wallace Mack Thriller) and Scale of Justice followed by Death by Sarcasm.

Although the topic is serious, the author uses plenty of humor along with a fast-paced delivery to keep an interesting who-done-it going at full speed.

The hard-hitting story includes numerous possible suspects as well as a surprising number of victims. John Rochne is a misunderstood, but believable character who seems to get into the most unbelievable situations. His cop sister even mistreats him and doesn’t believe the information he tries to share with her.

Other strong characters are Nate Decker, a friend of John’s and a full time reporter for the Grosse Point Times, and Rufus Coltraine, just out of prison and who somehow got ahold of a rare Barre guitar.

This review is based on a purchase of Dead Wood I made via Kindle several years ago. You can find a number of Dani Amore’s mysteries at Amazon.com.