TKO

by Tom Schreck

Overview

After twenty-five years in prison for murdering a couple of cheerleaders, a quarterback, and the class president, "Hackin'" Howard Rheinhart gets discharged. His case is assigned to Schlitz-drinking, Elvis-loving social worker and pro boxer Duffy Dombrowski. Soon, local high-school VIPs start showing up dead and Howard is nowhere to be found.

Duffy throws himself into Howard's defense while juggling a few problems of his own―like a huge upcoming boxing match, a new hormonal girlfriend, the unsolicited devotion of a goofy karate kid, and the ongoing misadventures of Al, Duffy's basset hound.

Praise for

TKO

:

"Fresh, intense and funny, Schreck's second mystery to feature unrepentant Elvis fan and dog lover Duffy Dombrowski packs a knockout punch." -

Publishers Weekly

"Refreshingly iconoclastic." -

Kirkus Reviews

"

TKO

is fast-paced, authentic, and funny as hell. Social worker and journeyman boxer Duffy Dombrowski is a workingman's hero, and I want him in my corner!" -Sean Chercover, author of

Trinity Game

"Not for the faint of heart, I doesn't let up. No holds barred, insightful characterization makes this series a stand-out." -

Mystery Reader

"No sophomore slump here. I am now really excited about the planned continuation of this series. Hand me another Schlitz, would you." -

Book Bitch

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643962825
Publisher:	Down & Out Books
Publication date:	05/30/2022
Series:	Duffy Dombrowski Mystery , #2
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.58(d)

About the Author

Tom Schreck’s novels are based on his experience as a former director of an inner city drug clinic and a professional boxing judge. Officiating fights at Madison Square Garden and elsewhere, he appears on HBO, Showtime, and ESPN. Schreck also writes a boxing column for Fightnews.com and has contributed to The Business Review, Professional Counselor, and Catfancy. He lives in New York.

Editorial Reviews

Pug/shamus/social worker Duffy Dombrowski must decide if his newest needy client is also a serial killer. They don't call Howard Reinhart the "Hacker" because he has a special facility with computers. Years back, when he was a high school senior, Howard sliced three cheerleader classmates to death and then took an ax to the football team's quarterback. While Duffy acknowledges that nothing could possibly justify a crime of this magnitude, he does empathize. His schoolmates picked on Howard mercilessly, Duffy tells a colleague: "In a way they all had it coming." Howard served his a sentence for the quadruple homicide. Now that he's Duffy's to rehabilitate, his homicidal history suddenly begins repeating itself. At McDonough High, a cheerleader is murdered, and other brutal slayings follow in a macabre, familiar pattern. Is Howard compulsively reenacting his past? Or has a crazed copycat killer been spurred to sickening action by news of his release? And where is Howard, anyway? The police can't find him, but Duffy gets an unexpected, unwelcome phone call that plunges him into sleuthing mode, puts him at odds with an unsympathetic boss and some severely annoyed cops and brings him within inches of losing his life. The phone call: "Duffy, this is Howard. I didn't do it."Answering the bell for round two (On the Ropes, 2007), Duffy remains refreshingly iconoclastic, though subplot clutter slows his footwork.

Kirkus Reviews