The Nail Knot

From the author of the “gritty, brash, and totally gripping” (The Real Book Spy) Bad Axe County series comes the first novel in the Fly Fishing Mystery series about a wayward fisherman, Ned “Dog” Oglivie, who finds himself in the middle of a small-town murder investigation.

When the going gets tough, Ned “Dog” Oglivie goes fly fishing.

Driven by tragedy to turn his back on human society, the Dog is on a quest to trout-fish himself into oblivion all across America. Plying the back highways of the country in an old RV, provisioned with a supply of peanut butter sandwiches, bad cigars, and a loaded pistol (for when the money runs out), the Dog rolls into little Black Earth, Wisconsin, intending to fish the yellow sally stonefly hatch…and stumbles upon a body instead.

Who killed Jake Jacobs, a fellow fly fisher who was trying to save Black Earth Creek? Why was he disfigured in such a peculiar way? Why does the Dog even give a damn? By caring about the death of a stranger, can the Dog recover his own life? And can he untie the nail knot in this “well-written, humorous, and engaging mystery” (Anthony Naples, Casting Around)?

John Galligan is the author of the Fly Fishing Mystery series, The Nail Knot, The Blood Knot, The Clinch Knot and The Wind Knot; the Bad Axe County series, Bad Moon Rising, Bad Axe County, and Dead Man Dancing; and the novel Red Sky, Red Dragonfly. He lives and teaches college writing in Madison, Wisconsin.