Meet Roy Ballard, freelance videographer with a knack for catching insurance cheats. He's working a routine case, complete with hours of tedious surveillance, when he sees something that shakes him to the core. There, with the subject, is a little blond girl wearing a pink top and denim shorts—the same outfit worn by Tracy Turner, a six-year-old abducted the day before. When the police are skeptical of Ballard's report—and with his history, who can blame them?—it's the beginning of the most important case of his life.

Everyone thinks Boz Gentry died in a fiery traffic accident, but Roy Ballard and Mia Madison aren’t convinced. As legal videographers, it’s their job to provide evidence of insurance fraud—and the more they dig into the Gentry case, the more they realize this might be the most elaborate scheme they’ve ever encountered. Of course, when millions of dollars are at stake, con men will take drastic steps to protect their scam—including arson, assault, or even murder. Can Roy and Mia unravel the conspiracy before the criminals get desperate enough to kill? Edgar Award finalist Ben Rehder's novels have made best-of-the-year lists in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Field & Stream. REVIEWS FOR BEN REHDER'S “Murderously funny.” —Chicago Tribune “Another of Rehder’s relentlessly twisted tales. Outrageous fun.” —Kirkus Reviews “Wickedly funny.” —Dallas Morning News “The odd cast of characters and bizarre plots and subplots make for a rollicking good read.” —Houston Chronicle “Rehder has made the leap from writing skillful comic pleasantries to pulverizing satire.” — Austin American-Statesman “Rehder writes with an assured hand and a knowing tip of the wide-brimmed cowboy hat to the ways and wiles of the characters that people his distinctly Texan landscape.” —San Antonio Express-News “[An] increasingly popular (and increasingly enjoyable) series. With this novel, the Marlin series has completed the transition from light mystery to no-holds-barred madcap comedy crime fiction (à la Westlake or Hiaasen).” —Booklist “Rehder continues to improve with each book. [His] series will appeal to fans of Southwestern mysteries laced with a bit of humor.” —Library Journal “This series about Blanco County, Texas, game warden John Marlin keeps getting odder and funnier…But one thing’s for Rehder has jumped to a new level...just might grab a chunk of the outsize Hiaasen crowd.” —Booklist “Down-home humor that is both intriguing and entertaining.” —Dallas Morning News “Rollicking good fun.” —San Antonio Express-News “Rehder’s clever storytelling skills, his expert comic timing and flair for characters have made this series shine. Rehder doesn’t just write niche mysteries, he’s proving to be one of the genre’s rising talents with his twisted tales.” —South Florida Sun-Sentinel “The writing here is confident and vigorous; the tone is quintessentially Texan and relentlessly wry. There’s sure to be a long career for this happy, wacky series.” —Publishers Weekly “Ben Rehder writes about the Texas Hill Country with such insightful appreciation that he’s come to own the territory, much the same way Carl Hiaasen owns South Florida.” —Austin Chronicle

Alex Dunn owned one of the most valuable collections of hobo nickels in the world, and it appears somebody killed him for it. Now Roy Ballard and Mia Madison are hired by the insurance company to track the collection down, which means they might reveal the identity of the killer in the course of their investigation. But the more they dig, the more suspects they uncover, including Dunn’s children, his ex-wife, and a buxom masseuse who takes a hands-off approach to the services she offers.

Jeremy Sawyer was having a great time on a party barge on Lake Travis, and then he was suddenly nowhere to be found. Had he jumped? Fallen off? Been pushed? Roy Ballard—an expert in catching insurance cheats—intends to find out. After all, Jeremy Sawyer was the nephew of one of his biggest clients, and she can’t shake the suspicion that it wasn't an accident. It isn’t long before Roy and his partner Mia Madison begin to draw the same conclusion.

Lennox Armbruster was struck by a speeding vehicle—but was it an accident or an insurance scam gone wrong? Roy Ballard is hired to find out, and he soon learns there’s a third possibility: attempted murder. Joe Jankowski, the man who hit Armbruster, is a tough-talking player in the construction industry, and a feud with one of his former employees has shown that he has a temper to match his brash personality. When Roy and his partner Mia Madison attempt to dig deeper, they learn just how far Jankowski will go to shut down their investigation.

Does Caleb Dimmick really work at his father’s motorcycle dealership, or does he simply ride the payroll, thereby giving his dad a nice tax break? Roy Ballard, a legal videographer specializing in insurance fraud, is hired to find out. After just a few days, Roy is convinced everything is legit—until a dealership employee is gunned down in his own backyard, possibly by an assassin on an orange sportbike. Now, with a large life insurance payout on the line, Roy needs to identify the killer. But the deeper Roy digs, the greater the risk grows, setting up a series of deadly confrontations that will shake him to his core.

The trouble at the Conlees' lakeside estate begins when vandals topple and destroy an expensive Italian fountain. Then they slash the tires and damage the paint job on a Jaguar. That’s when Roy Ballard's client, the insurance company, asks him to catch the vandal in the act and prevent future claims. Surprisingly, the homeowner, Norman Conlee, opposes the idea. He intends to address the problem himself by fencing the property and keeping his revolver handy. Eventually, though, he gives in, and Roy goes to work. It’s not long before the case escalates in a way nobody saw coming. Roy will need some luck to close this case before he winds up a victim himself.