Judge Laura Porter fiercely guarded her privacy, and never more so than during her long-running—and long in the past—affair with disgraced quarterback-turned-private investigator Andy Hayes. Now she’s missing, disappeared just hours after she calls Andy out of the blue explaining she’s in trouble and needs his help.

Judge Laura Porter fiercely guarded her privacy, and never more so than during her long-running—and long in the past—affair with disgraced quarterback-turned-private investigator Andy Hayes. Now she’s missing, disappeared just hours after she calls Andy out of the blue explaining she’s in trouble and needs his help.
A trail of clues leads Andy to a central Ohio swamp whose future lies in the judge’s hands as she weighs a lawsuit pitting environmentalists against developers. Soon Hayes encounters the case of another missing person, a young man who vanished without a trace in a different swamp two counties away. As he looks for links between the two disappearances, Hayes is led from Columbus to Cleveland, unearthing a history of secrets and betrayals threatening not just the judge but her family as well.
Along the way, Hayes is forced to confront a newly strained relationship with his older son, now a budding football star himself, and revisit his tumultuous days as a Cleveland Browns quarterback and the gridiron failures that haunt him to this day. In partnership with a cop on her own quest for justice, Hayes rushes to find the judge, and the truth, before it’s too late.

"“Readers who love old-fashioned detective novels will be in hog heaven as they tear into Welsh-Huggins' latest adventure featuring Andy Hayes.”" - Booklist

"“Fatal Judgment—like its predecessors—offers multiple rewards and further evidence of its author’s prowess.“" - The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, MD)

"“Intriguing … fans of Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone books will be pleased.”" - Publishers Weekly

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Praise for the Andy Hayes Mystery Series:
“An anti-immigrant attack propels Welsh-Huggins’s timely fifth mystery featuring Columbus, Ohio, PI Andy Hayes….Welsh-Huggins educates and entertains as he explores immigrant issues through his empathetic hero’s investigation.”

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Praise for the Andy Hayes Mystery Series:
“[Welsh-Huggins] excels at storytelling. With a reporter’s eye and a novelist’s flair, he raises the bar with each entry in his series. And his deepening development of Andy adds gravitas.”

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Praise for the Andy Hayes Mystery Series:
“Welsh-Huggins has a way with language…[He] is an Associated Press reporter, and the urge to bring the news is an unkillable one.”