The Shanahan crime novels, both funny and realistically suspenseful, are about a wry, old private eye who, while unimpressed by money and power, is a sucker for the underdog. His ingrained curmudgeonly pessimism is, however, tempered by his charming 50ish, tough, friendly, and funny girlfriend, Maureen Smith.

They live in the once sleepy Midwestern city, Indianapolis, where Bible Belt meets urban grit, and where serious crime happens among the rich and powerful as often as it does on the increasingly mean streets. Smith and Shanahan share a house on the city’s Eastside with a 60-pound Catahoula hound and Einstein, an ancient, bony feline.

Readers get to know the city. And they get to know the set of characters who inhabit the elder detective’s world, including Howie Cross, a younger private investigator who seems better at getting into trouble than getting others out of it, and a Harley-riding rebel lawyer named James Fenimore Kowalski.

Asphalt Moon is the eighth and newest in the hard-boiled mystery series featuring Dietrich “Deets” Shanahan. An early Booklist review said the book offers “…snappy dialogue, succinct but witty prose, characters with principles and enough clever humor to keep even the dourest mystery buff laughing out loud.”