PRECIPICE, the eighth book in the 'Reporting is Murder'(c) Series by Eugenie D. West, opens with the funeral of a State Trooper, one of County Detective Jack Draper's best friends. The Trooper's death has been ruled an accident, but Jack, along with sometime girlfriend journalist Gracie Barufaldi, have their doubts. Gracie, who employs her own unique brand of out-of-the-box investigation into the cases she encounters, helps Jack uncover the truth: the death of his friend was not an accident, but a murder, one which leads Jack and Gracie into a tangle of payoffs, lies and corruption at the highest levels of local government. Like most of the books in the 'Reporting is Murder'(c) Series, PRECIPICE's featured murder isn't the only crime in the story, nor is the thread of Gracie and Jack's relationship the only sub-plot. As in life, other dramas, intrigues and passions intervene, creating a deftly woven tale that, while fiction, rings all too true.