Hardwick Harrison is having a pre-midlife crisis. He’s an overweight detective who does stand-up comedy to help pay the bills until he cracks the big case. The problem is, he spends most of his time trailing cheating husbands and running background checks. As his comedy career takes off, Hard contemplates turning in his P.I. license for life on the stand-up circuit. But a call from a young girl whose mother has disappeared leads the portly gumshoe on a trail of murder as bodies keep turning up. Harrison thinks he may be getting in over his head and a surly Minneapolis police lieutenant tries to get him off the investigation.

Hard, who hails from tiny Earring, Wisconsin, struggles to find his place in the world while also trying to keep his older, ex-con brother from making a return trip to the slammer. His own poor self-image keeps him from pursuing a possible romantic involvement with a beautiful female acquaintance. But after her roommate is kidnapped, they are forced together in search of answers, racing through rural Minnesota with death reaching out for them at every turn in the road. **