Post Pattern (Burnside) by David Chill

David Chill told me in an interview he was inspired by Les Roberts and his Saxon series and it shows. Clean, well-paced writing and a fine murder mystery balanced by just enough of the protagonists' social life .
Burnside used to be a cop until a young streetwalker he took under his wing betrayed his trust. In this first novel he's hired to investigate why a football players was shot at on a California freeway.
Along the way he gets involved in a murder case, meets lots of sexy young co-eds and falls in love.
As an ex-cop and ex-football player Burnside (no last name in homage to Saxon, not Spenser as you might think) knows how to take care of himself, and that is a good thing too because the bad guys try to take him out resulting in a spectacular car chase for one. Don't think this is Jack Reacher territory though, it's a nice solid first person PI mystery in the vein of Les Roberts, Robert B. Parker and Stephen Greenleaf.