When the state and outraged neighbors come after a small company over a toxic chemical spill, Nashville PI Sid Chance is hired to find who is responsible. The pollution occurred before the current owner bought the property. A former Green Beret in Vietnam, National Park ranger, and small town police chief, Sid quickly finds all his leads point to dead ends. A night-time explosion behind his associate's house, threats, and three possibly-connected murders turn up the heat. Sid finds a task that looked routine has turned deadly. As the tension mounts, he encounters the unsavory people responsible for malicious accusations of bribery that brought his police career to an untimely end.

REVIEW

Chester Campbell’s latest, THE SUREST POISON introduces a new character, PI Sid Chance and his side kick Jaz LeMieux. Sid live just outside Nashville and is a former Police Chief who wanted to just retire and get away from it all. His friend Jaz works her magic and talks him into taking a case and becoming a PI. With this book opening she has pulled some strings and gotten him another case. A local lawyer is representing a business owner in trouble with the authorities because of a chemical spill at his plant caused by the previous owners. Unfortunately the previous owners are more than a bit elusive. The further a long Sid gets, the stranger things become and it soon becomes clear these are people who want their privacy. Something very hinky is going on.

Chance is a great character, 59 years old, Viet Nam vet, ex cop and relentless. Campbell’s work here is his best yet and the book has a natural rhythm that moves the story along at a nice pace. The people who populate the book are realistic and nothing feels forced, its as if Campbell is just telling their story without embellishing, which I found refreshing. A top rate mystery by a gem of a writer.

Reviewed by: Jon Jordan, editor of Crimespree Magazine
www.crimespreemag.com

EXCERPT

Jaz LeMieux was one helluva woman. She had the looks and the brains to be whatever she wanted, and she had the money and the contacts to pull it off.

She cocked her head to the side. “Okay, Sid. What did Arnie have to say?”

“He wants me to find everything there’s to know about the polluter. It was a company named Auto Parts Rehabbers.”

He told her about his visit to Ashland City.

“And the company simply disappeared?” she said.

“Maybe not so simply, but it hardly left a trace. I’ll see if the old Chamber of Commerce guy can give me something to get a grip on. I plan to check with him in the morning.”

“Are you going to see Harrington tomorrow?”

“After I talk to Murray Estes.”

“Do a good job on this, Sid. Arnie can throw you plenty of business.”
He leaned back and tapped his fingertips. “You remember how reluctant I was to look into your employee problem.”

“Sure.” She waved a hand. “I had to twist your arm a bit. But you did a whale of job with it. You got a faithful employee reinstated and a crooked manager fired.”

“But after that I intended to head back to the cabin. You kept pushing me into the PI business. Why didn’t you let it go?”

She gave him an impish smile. “It was your scintillating personality.”

“Bullshit.”

“Okay, I’ll admit, there’s more. You know I was once a Nashville cop.”

“Right. Mike told me a bit about your wayward career.”

“I guess it’s still in my blood. I’m taking part vicariously in something I can’t afford to do on my own. I have too much responsibility with the business. But I’d love to help you out on a case if there’s something I could do.”

“You’re serious.”

“Absolutely.”