When Haskell Blevins is first approached by Ruta Lippton, and then Winslow Reed, they both have the same story. Someone broke into their homes and took...nothing. They both want the case solved as soon as possible, but without fingerprints and without a crime being committed, how is he supposed to solve it? No wonder the sheriff didn't take them seriously.

But since they paid in advance, he tells them he'll do his best. Then Phyllis Carver shows up with the same story. But where Phyllis lives isn't nearly as nice, and she doesn't have much of anything. Yet when Ruta and Winslow's wife June both call to tell Haskell to keep the money and they don't need him anymore, he gets a little suspicious. Enough to call Phyllis - who isn't answering her phone. And when he drives out to her house he finds her dead, shot in the back. Who would want to kill her? And what is with the three tape recorders - with only one of them with a tape in it?

When Phyllis's sister Imogene arrives at the home she singles Haskell out and hires him to find out who killed her sister...after informing him as to what was on the missing tapes, and what Phyllis was doing with them. But when Haskell's office is trashed, he wonders just how far someone will go to get them back...

Well, I was hoping (again) that this series would improve. It didn't. In fact, it regressed. While the plot was interesting enough, there were questions (again) that were never answered, and animal cruelty (again) that could have - and should have - been avoided. So far, this author has tortured and/or killed animals in two out of three books. I shudder to think what the last three in this series will bring, and honestly, I'm not going to waste my time reading them to find out. There is no reason at all in a fairly harmless mystery (no blood or gore) why animal cruelty should enter the equation. It really makes me wonder (again) if the author just dislikes animals altogether.

Anyway, Haskell himself acts like a teenage girl, wondering through the entire book why one person or another has more of a love life than he does. He bemoans the fact that he was slightly more popular in high school than Winslow, so how did he wind up with a cheerleader wife while poor Haskell (who compares himself to Howdy Doody) spends his night loveless. Honestly?

This man, who was a homicide detective in Louisville and is now a private investigator, hasn't been able to find one single woman in town who finds that fact interesting and would like to know more about him? Okay, admittedly he comes off as having the I.Q. of a turnip - I mean, really, he can't see the forest for the trees until he practically runs into one, and he suspects everyone of committing the crime instead of looking for the most likely person - but probably because he's more worried about someone else's ability to get women while he can't get them to even notice him.

But what ticked me off the most is what I've put in a spoiler below and contains references to the killer's actions, so please don't read on if you don't want to know:

The spoiler can be found here: https://joannesbooks.blogspot.com/2018/06/bed-bugs-haskell-blevins-mystery-1.htm...

Anyway, if you've read the spoiler than you can see why I've rated this book so low. I'm not sure if I'll continue with this series or not. ( )