Dylan Klein, insurance investigator cum novelist, returns home from Hollywood to attend his father’s funeral. After the burial, Klein learns that his nephew Zak is missing. Unable to get satisfactory answers as to the whereabouts of his son, Klein’s older brother, Jeffrey, enlists the aid of Dylan and Dylan’s most trusted friend, retired NYPD detective Johnny Mac Clough. They soon discover Zak’s trail is not only icy cold, but paved in layers of blood and intrigue.

Their search leads them to a tranquil college town on the Canadian border. There, they stumble blindly into an underworld of murderers and international drug smugglers. Even as they pick up faint traces of Zak, Mac Clough is haunted by the specter of a twenty-year-old kidnapping case that had catapulted him to the rank of detective.

Distracted by his grief and the search for Zak, torn between his loyalty to Mac Clough and his desire for truth, a vulnerable Klein falls under the spell of a mysterious young woman. But is she what she claims to be, or she too have her own dark secrets? And what of the genius computer hacker Klein takes on in order to find his missing nephew? Will these desperate measures lead to Zak or to disaster?

They Don’t Play Stickball in Milwaukee is both a taut thriller and an exploration of the ties that bind. Where do love and allegiance end, and where does the truth begin? These are the dilemmas Dylan Klein must face.