Sparkle (Kindle and ePub)

Runaway teen Linda Heller, known on the road as Sparkle to her fellow train hoppers, witnesses a murder aboard a freight car rolling south to the Gulf.

Her dream of freedom and adventure on the rails had withered and died before the murder, but now, with the lowlife who did it after her, she’s not going to be hopping any more boxcars.

She makes a run for it in Mobile and is picked up by homeless Army vet Johnny Egan. Egan promises her refuge at his camp in a drifters’ tent city he calls the Hobo Hilton, and Sparkle thinks she's finally caught a break. But before the night’s over, cowering in the bushes, she watches as police raid the camp and haul Egan off. Could her luck get any worse?

But it’s Johnny Egan’s luck that Jesse Yates is worried about. Yates, who has been hired by Egan’s public defender, needs to find the girl Egan claims can provide an alibi.

In fending off both a corrupt big name attorney and the thugs making headway on putting Sparkle out of commission, Yates has his work cut out for him. But he is certain that his fellow warrior is innocent, and he's determined to prove it.

Jesse Yates and Sparkling Linda Heller make quite the pair.
This is Book Four in the Jesse Yates/Palm Court Detectives series.