The Silent Places / James Patrick Hunt / 322 pages / St. Louis Challenge

James Patrick Hunt has written three previous George Hastings novels and I'm going to go back and read all three of them.  Set in St. Louis, they feature homicide detective George Hastings, a man of integrity and honesty.  In Silent Places, he is given responsible for protecting Senator Alan Preston from an assassination attempt.  The senator wants local protection in lieu of FBI protection because he wants to keep the matter under wraps.  He is contemplating a run for U.S. president and his past with threatened assassin John Reese could be political suicide.  This is a nale-biter, a cliff-hanger, and a keep-you-up-late-at-night read.