Birdies, Bogeys and Blood flow in this Crime Novel Debut

Hildy Swanson, a wealthy Westchester County socialite and community benefactor, is kidnapped at gunpoint in her home in the New York suburbs on a beautiful spring day. After leaving a ransom note on the kitchen counter, the two masked kidnappers roughly throw her into the trunk of their car and drive to a deserted farmhouse. Hildy is locked in the cellar alone and fearful of the men’s intentions.

Because she inherited a considerable fortune after her first husband died, Hildy is a tempting mark for the kidnappers. She has been generous with her money with local causes, including funding an area hospital department. The unit is dedicated to her sister who died as a teenager and whom she still mourns.

When RG Cassidy, Hildy’s husband, returns home, the former golf champion finds the strange ransom note ordering him to meet the kidnappers for 18 holes of golf to win Hildy’s freedom. The note also includes a large cash demand. The next day at the first tee Cassidy is told of an unnerving set of rules for the game.

The case is a challenge for a fast-growing suburban town that has drawn two upstate New York cops to its expanding force. But there is bad blood between the two lead Swanson case investigators, a no nonsense Captain Charlotte McBain and Samuel Garrett, a detective with a bad gambling habit. Their tension underlies and complicates the case that goes well beyond the rural and suburban boundaries of Westchester County.