Badger Games: A Detective Sergeant Mulheisen Mystery (Detective Sergeant Mullheisen Mysteries) - Softcover

Jackson, Jon A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802139833 ISBN 13: 9780802139832

Publisher: Grove Press, 2004

Synopsis

The book opens with the disappearance of a man named Franko Bradovich in Kosovo. Franko, a native Montanan posing as a local, was a spy of sorts, an operative who was helping the Lucani (a loose affiliation of DEA, FBI, CIA, etc. agents operating outside the law) bust a drug trafficking scheme from Bulgaria through Kosovo and Serbia to Europe. Franko was living with the family of a farmer named Daliljaj (and was in love with the farmer’s daughter Fedima) and an apparently helpful American-raised Slav (Bozi Bazok), who’s become part of the Serb army’s shock troops, has warned Franko that the army was headed toward them with bloodshed in mind. Later, though, Franko, who’s been posing as a drug trafficker, is brought in by local police for questioning and is beaten making Bazok’s helpfulness questionable at best. Either way, Franko can’t really afford to stick around. Bazok agrees to help him and, reluctantly, Daliljaj, Fedima, and their relatives, escape the sweep, in exchange for the massive quantities of drugs he believes Franko is hiding. But Bazok betrays him and slaughters Daliljaj and all of Fedima’s other family while they wait for Franko to return with transport. When Franko returns, Bazok has disappeared, taking Fedima with him.

At this point the Lucani contact Joe Service. They ask him to go to Butte and see what he can see among the Serb population there. He and Helen Sedlacek travel from Detroit to Montana and start asking around for Franko Bradoviches (and permutations of the name). They find a Frank Oberavich and while he’s not their man, he does provide them with excellent food, wine, and home-grown pot. And, it turns out, Franko” from Kosovo is really Frank Oberavich’s cousin Paulie and has been living on his property in a tent.

Helen, Joe, and the Lucani aren’t the only ones who are curious about Franko’s” whereabouts. A woman named Jamala King, a new Lucani, comes out to help them, and they’re going to need all the help they can get because the alcoholic, bloodthirsty Bazok is headed toward Butte, convinced Franko was holding out on a major drug stash, and anxious to prevent him testifying to a war crimes tribunal about his slaughter of the Daliljaj family. Paulie, of course, blames himself for the deaths of Fedima and her family. What follows is a deadly cat-and-mouse game on a Montana mountain, as each side attempts to find the other first. It culminates in a terrifying night in abandoned mine tunnels and a bloody ambush in which one of the group protecting Paulie is revealed to be an impostor.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Detective Sergeant Mulheisen, titular hero of Jackson's freewheeling Mulheisen series (Man with an Axe, etc.), is all but absent from this ninth installment. Occupying center stage are his nemeses, freelance pistoleros Joe Service and Helen Sedlacek, this time caught in a web of double- and triple-crosses between secret U.S. intelligence cabals and deep-cover agents from the former Yugoslavia. Joe and Helen, once employed by the mob, are now working for a former American colonel who runs a vigilante group called the Lucani. Composed of intelligence and military personnel fed up with the sluggishness of governments and tribunals, the Lucani exact violent justice on international criminals. Following the disappearance of Lucani agent "Franko" (who recently penetrated a Serbian drug cartel), the colonel recruits Joe and Helen to chase the erstwhile agent from Kosovo to the Serbian community in Butte, Mont. Complicating matters is a trigger-happy Serbian-American thug named Bazok (the "Badger"), who may be a cartel assassin or a rival deep-cover agent. Joe is more interested in retiring to a quiet corner of bucolic Montana so that he and Helen can enjoy quality time together than in finding Franko, but he takes notice when the irrepressible Badger shows up and starts blasting his way through Butte, also on Franko's trail. Joe, Helen and their ilk have too much fun with sex, drugs, guns and cliched banter to really get down to the business of international crime fighting. Without the counterbalancing weight of Mulheisen, the larks overwhelm Jackson's intricate suspense plot.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Joe Service and Helen Sedlacek, two of the featured players in Jackson's superb Fang Mulheisen novels, are now on their own. Formerly a freelancer for the Mafia, Service is currently employed by a group of rogue government agents called the Lucani. Traveling with Mafia princess Sedlacek, his lover and co-conspirator, Service heads to Montana to track down a Lucani agent who went missing in Kosovo and may have been spotted in Butte. Maneuvers and counter-maneuvers dominate the action as Joe and Helen look for a way to cut their Lucani ties while shadow boxing with an assassin called the Badger, who is in Butte to kill the missing agent. Jackson balances all these elements effectively, but it is the interpersonal dynamics between Joe and Helen that occupy center stage: Can a couple of good-hearted criminals with competing egos find a quiet life for themselves in the Montana wilderness? We hope so, but we also miss the galvanizing presence of Detroit cop Mulheisen, determined to put Service behind bars. Joe and Helen do fine on their own, but here's hoping Jackson brings the whole gang back together eventually. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0802139833
• ISBN 13: 9780802139832
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336