{"product_id":"wild-pitch","title":"Wild Pitch","description":"\u003cp\u003eAfter Buster Hogue is shot at the annual town picnic  plenty of motives appear  but no clues point to the sniper. A lot of people had reason to dislike Hogue or even to wish him dead because of personal and unhappy experience  but grudges don t count in the absence of evidence. Chick Charleston  the small-town Montana sheriff  has had no experience with this kind of case  the county not having been inclined to homicidal endeavors. Neither does his county office have the gadgets to ferret out the criminal. But he has patience  persistence  a sense of humor  and a sharp understanding of human nature. He also has a keen assistant in seventeen-year-old Jason Beard  pitcher for the Midbury baseball team and amateur detective  who takes notes and acts as Watson to Charleston s Holmes. In the violent and surprising finale  young Jase plays a saving hand. There is humor in these pages  even earthy hilarity  but at no cost to mystery and suspense. Against the western background he knows so well  A. B. Guthrie Jr. has created a very human and believable sleuth in Chick Charleston  and in Jason Beard a singularly engaging narrator  whose accounts of local characters such as Loose Lancaster  Doc Yak  and old Mrs. Jenkins are guaranteed to entertain the reader.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44948555563061,"sku":"ByrdShop_0395154820","price":92.01,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780395154823.jpg?v=1770583686","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/wild-pitch","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}