Pepper Pike: A Milan Jacovich Mystery

#1 in the Milan Jacovich mystery series ...

"A clever plot, a vibrant Cleveland and rural Ohio setting, and a realistically drawn hero make this series one to watch. It exudes much the same sort of charm as the early Spenser novels did." -- Booklist

Introducing Milan Jacovich (pronounced MY-lan YOCK-ovich), Cleveland's favorite private eye.

Milan, an ex-cop, Vietnam veteran, and former football player, is a private investigator with a master's degree, a taste for klobasa sandwiches and Stroh's beer, and a knack for finding trouble.

Milan gets a cryptic late-night phone call from high-powered advertising executive Richard Amber, who wants to pay him a thousand dollars for twelve hours of bodyguard service. But when Milan gets to the Amber house in the elegant suburb of Pepper Pike, no one is home. The next morning, Amber's beautiful but brittle wife hires Milan to find her husband, who, it seems, has disappeared.

The search will lead Milan through the haunts of the very rich, including an exclusive country club where the Slovenian American sleuth almost loses his life, and onto some of Cleveland's meanest streets. He'll meet Cleveland mob kingpin Don Giancarlo D'Allessandro and his sophisticated but deadly nephew Victor Gaimari, and even cross paths with the governor of Ohio.

"Roberts handles the private-eye format with aplomb and takes full advantage of his Cleveland scene . . . Best of all is his Slovenian sleuth, vulnerable and fallible, whom we are likely (and would like) to see more of." -- San Diego Union Tribune