Inspired by a horrific, unsolved true crime in the author's old hometown , The Shades Dripped Red (Longitudes Press) is the second thriller in the Nick Montaigne mystery series by Peter Kurtz. As with the debut Montaigne novel, Black Jackknife ( praised by both Publishers Weekly and Midwest Book Review) , The Shades Dripped Red continues the exploits of suave Atlanta private detective Nick Montaigne and his clumsy but lovable partner, ex-cop Vern Wister. Here, the two investigators travel to a small Ohio town seemingly stuck in time to investigate a 25-year-old double-homicide. Assisted by a crusading news reporter with a substance abuse problem (and, in Montaigne's case, a very sexy engineer), they become immersed in COVID-era espionage, small-town parochialism, and the military-industrial complex. Still a mystery in real life, perhaps. But with Montaigne-Wister poking around, it's only a matter of time before this cold case is thawed.