Yesterday is Dead

Someone is trying to scare Benny Bartlett, a freelance writer in Seattle into leaving the Jet City...and he has no clue why. It starts with threatening phone calls but escalates into gunfire. The police won't help, despite clear evidence of attempted murder, so Benny calls his old friend Bragg, who returns to his hometown to get answers. But he soon has to face his own, troubled past when his long lost ex-wife unexpectedly reappears, opening old wounds. Things quickly become explosive...literally. Bragg emerges from the flames into a hailstorm of bullets, beatings and bodies...a blast from the past that could put him in a grave.

"First published in 1985 under the title Seattle, Lynch's low-key, medium-boiled seventh Peter Bragg PI thriller brings the San Francisco–based PI back to his hometown of Seattle, where a freelance writer friend, Benny Bartlett, is in trouble. Benny, "the funny little sort of man who could restore my faith in people whenever I got fed up with the tribe of wackos, con men, and bad guys I'd met over the years," has been told to leave town--and a bomb tossed through Benny's office window indicates someone is serious about the idea. If guarding Benny and his family and sleuthing around for answers isn't enough trouble, Bragg reconnects with his ex-wife and rekindles that quirky flame. Highlights include the detective taking a (yes, classic) beating, and a fast-paced wrap-up at an airfield. Dialogue-driven, but with pauses for contemplation typical of this crime subgenre, this reissue ought to be on the radar of any enthusiast for American private eye fiction." -- Publishers Weekly