Wild pitch

"After Buster Hogue is shot at the annual town picnic, plenty of motives appear, but no clues point to the sniper. A lot of people had reason to dislike Hogue or even to wish him dead because of personal and unhappy experience; but grudges don't count in the absence of evidence. Chick Charleston, the small-town sheriff, has had no experience with this kind of case, the county not having been inclined to homicidal endeavors. Neither has his county office the gadgets to ferret out the criminal. But he has patience, persistence, a sense of humor, and a sharp understanding of human composition. He also has a keen assistant in seventeen-year-old Jason Beard, pitcher for the Midbury baseball team and amateur detective, who takes notes and acts as Watson to Charleston, recounting the story of a search that begins to have focus after the sniper snipes again. In the violent and surprising finale, young Jase plays a saving hand."--Jacket.