Just as with his remarkable military novels, millions of readers have been captured by the rich characters and vivid realism of Griffin's police dramas. "Griffin has the knack," writes The Philadelphia Inquirer. "He sets his novel before you in short, fierce, stop-for-nothing scenes. Before you know it, you've gobbled it up."

Now, in Final Justice, Detective Matt Payne-newly promoted to Sergeant and assigned to Homicide-finds himself in the middle of three major assignments. The first, a fatal shooting at a fast-food restaurant, seems simple, but rapidly becomes complicated. The second begins complicated and only gets more so, as Payne becomes involved with a local guru who has fled the country, leaving behind the mummified body of his girlfriend in a trunk. And, as if that weren't enough, the self-absorbed star of a series of improbable police movies comes into town-and it is his presence that will complicate Payne's life most of all.

Little Free Library at the church on Bolingbrook Drive (53) and Lee Street.