Book ~ "A Welcome Murder" (2017) Robin Yocum

From Goodreads ~ After his unspectacular professional baseball career ends with a knee injury in Toledo, Ohio, Johnny Earl gets busted for selling cocaine. After serving seven years in prison, all he wants to do is return to his hometown of Steubenville, retrieve the drug money he stashed before he went to jail and start a new life where no one has ever heard of Johnny Earl. 

However, before he can leave town with his money, Johnny is picked up for questioning in the murder of Rayce Daubner, the FBI informant who had set him up on drug charges in the first place. Then his former prison cellmate shows up - a white supremacist who wants the drug money to help fund an Aryan nation in the wilds of Idaho. 

Five memorable characters, each with a separate agenda, come together in this layered tale of murder, deceit and political intrigue.

In high school in a small town in Ohio, Johnny Earl was popular and a star athlete.  He was drafted onto a major league baseball team but an injury, though, cuts his career short.  He drifts into selling coke and is sent to prison for seven years when he is caught.  In prison, his cellmate is a nut who is a white supremacist who wants to kill the president and take over the United States.  Needless to say, Johnny is relieved when he is released from prison and heads home.

As Johnny is getting ready to go get the money he had hidden before he went to prison, Rayce Daubner, the FBI informant who had ratted on Johnny and got him sent to prison, is murdered.  Johnny is an obvious suspect.  Around this time, his former cellmate is released and comes looking for Johnny to give him his hidden money so he can started his Aryan nation.  Sheriff Roberson tries to solve the murder before the FBI agents can.  He has aspirations to eventually become president plus he has secrets of his own that he'd like to remain hidden.

This is the first book I read by this author and I enjoyed it.  It wasn't your typical murder mystery.  I liked the writing style and it amusing.  It is written in first person perspective from various points of view (the chapters are labeled so you know whose voice it is) ... Johnny, Francis (Johnny's former best friend in high school and now sheriff of the town), Allison (Francis' wife), Dena Marie (Johnny's former girlfriend from high school who seems to be sleeping with everyone in town) and Smoochie (Dena Marie's wimpy husband).  The characters were all a bit wacky but likable.  As a head's up, there is swearing and adult activity.

I look forward to reading other books by this author.