Stand Up and Die

From the authors of the "excellent" Mr. and Mrs. North Mysteries: The murder of a beautiful woman draws Captain Heimrich into a tangled web of secrets (The New Yorker).   Capt. M. L. Heimrich of the New York State Police may not have the flash of hard-boiled city detectives, but there's no lead the intrepid investigator won't follow until his every hunch is satisfied . . .   The quiet town of East Belford, New York, finds the entire ordeal of Virginia Monroe's violent death quite shocking. The way the stranger—a young, recently discharged marine—claims to have stumbled across the girl's naked and abused body seems odd indeed. After all, why was he walking down the lane in a town where he had no reason to be anyway?   Captain Heimrich knows some things about Miss Monroe's murder don't quite fit, but despite pressure from the townsfolk and media, he's not about to arrest Timothy Gates without a thorough investigation.   As he gets to know the players in the case—including the victim's jealous younger sister, rich invalid grandmother, and nervous fiancé—Heimrich starts to believe there's more to the story. But if he doesn't identify the culprit soon, another murder could be in East Belford's future . . .   Stand Up and Die is the 6th book in the Captain Heimrich Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.