Andy Hayes Mysteries
This long-running Shamus Award-nominated series features Columbus private eye Andy Hayes, a former Ohio State and Cleveland Browns quarterback turned investigator.
Justice For Some, Entertainment For All
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Justice For Some, Entertainment For All •
Sick to Death (2024)
Andy’s life is turned around when he discovers he has an adult daughter he never knew about. His daughter, Alex, is less interested in a warm-and-fuzzy reunion than hiring her father to find out who killed Alex’s mother, Kate, in a hit-and-run accident five months earlier that might be connected to Kate’s work as an ICU nurse during the worst of COVID.
“The eighth in this excellent PI series (following An Empty Grave) also stands alone. Recommended for fans of detectives with a troubled past and a nose for crime.”—LIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review)An Empty Grave (2021)
Andy takes on a forty-year-old cold case, finding a mysterious Cold War connection to a burglar who shot a cop, as well as a series of deaths that seem to be connected, one way or another, to the missing criminal. Nothing seems to add up, though, and Hayes finds himself hurtling headlong down a decades-old path of deadly secrets.
“An Empty Grave is an excellent mystery featuring a recognizably human investigator. Readers will identify with Andy and admire his strengths and the dedication he brings to his clients.”—MARILYN BROOKS, Marilyn's Mystery ReadsFatal Judgment (2019)
Andy’s personal and professional lives collide when a local judge—and former girlfriend—disappears. 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.
“Readers who love old-fashioned detective novels will be in hog heaven as they tear into Welsh-Huggins' latest adventure featuring Andy Hayes.”—BOOKLISTThe Third Brother (2018)
After Andy rescues a Somali American mother and her young children from anti-immigrant bullies, a grateful Somali community hires Andy to find a missing teenager who vanished without a trace and is now accused of plotting a terror attack in his adopted hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
“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.”—PUBLISHERS WEEKLYThe Hunt (2017)
As a serial killer stalks prostitutes in Columbus, Ohio, a distraught brother asks Andy to find his sister before it’s too late. In a deadly race against time, Andy soon learns he’s not the only person hunting Jessica Byrnes, but he may be the only one who wants her alive.
“The author has crafted a fine procedural based on human trafficking, and it’s a pleasure to watch his PI, Columbus, Ohio–based Andy Hayes, go to work. …Welsh-Huggins has a way with language…[He] is an Associated Press reporter, and the urge to bring the news is an unkillable one.”—BOOKLISTCapitol Punishment (2016)
When murder strikes at the Ohio Statehouse, Andy finds himself partly responsible for the death. With an innocent man behind bars, a mysterious vehicle following Andy around the city, and more lives in danger, the detective has his hands full trying to solve a killing in a poisonous political environment where everyone has a motive for murder and anyone could be the next target.
“Ohio politics provide the backdrop for Welsh-Huggins’s nicely plotted third mystery featuring disgraced former OSU quarterback Andy Hayes (after 2015’s Slow Burn). …Andy must navigate a minefield of powerful personalities with few inhibitions in a cautionary tale that’s a perfect read in an election year.”—PUBLISHERS WEEKLYSlow Burn (2016)
Andy is skeptical when a woman asks him to reopen the arson case against her grandson by finding a mysterious witness who may have seen the real culprit the night of a fire that killed three college students. Andy’s doubts fade as he uncovers a tangle of motives for the victims’ deaths, implicating the state’s natural gas fracking boom, drug dealers, and more.
“Even more gripping than his debut novel, this second installment firmly establishes Welsh-Huggins as a rising star in the genre. Expect a late—and rewarding—night of addictive reading.”—RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCHFourth Down and Out (2014)
The job seems easy enough at first for private investigator Andy Hayes: save his client’s reputation by retrieving a laptop and erasing a troublesome video from its hard drive. But that’s before someone breaks into Andy’s apartment in Columbus; before someone else, armed with a shotgun, relieves him of the laptop; and before the FBI suddenly shows up on his doorstep asking questions.
“Andy (Hayes) is an agreeable narrator with a dry wit and a bit of a martyr’s complex. His dark past under center for the Buckeyes plays into the satisfying conclusion of this solid debut thriller from an AP legal-affairs reporter based in Columbus.”—BOOKSLIT