Urbane, vain Nick Montaigne has a taste for Porsches, fifties jazz, and cinnamon chewing gum. When a beautiful Georgia coed is brutally murdered on the Appalachian Trail, detective Montaigne and his lovable but awkward partner Vern Wister are pulled into terra incognita. Montaigne not only has to hobnob with tennis studs at an elite university, and match wits with an arrogant attorney while bedding the man's ex-wife, he also has to keep trail dirt out of his Italian shoes, all while solving a murder and disappearance.In BLACK JACKKNIFE, author Peter Kurtz introduces a detective who has the panache of James Bond and the craftiness of Lieutenant Columbo. BLACK JACKKNIFE is a mystery thriller with a little sex, a little blood, and several packets of freeze-dried noodles. Cue up some Dave Brubeck, strap on a backpack, and join Montaigne and Wister as they hunt for a mysterious psycho killer, lurking somewhere between downtown Atlanta and the trail shelter near Buzzard Knob.