The Weight of Living (Frank Nagler Series) (Volume 3) by Michael Stephen Daigle

“The Weight of Living” (2017) is the third Frank Nagler Mystery. They are set in Ironton N.J., and tell of the police work of troubled Detective Frank Nagler.
"Weight" was awarded FIRST PLACE for mysteries in the 2017 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards Contest.
The stories are set in Ironton, N.J., a depressed former industrial city. The setting is dark and shifting and is as much a character as the humans. Nagler is a lonely, probably depressed cop, still aching over the loss of his young wife to cancer decades before. He had buried his grief in his police work, and her memory and a vow to honor her life drive his police work

In “Weight,” the search for the name and family of a young girl discovered in a grocery store Dumpster in a cold March night leads Nagler down the dark path of a New Jersey family with a terrible, hidden past. He finds curious connections to his own past. Nagler and his close circle are endangered by this search.
The story introduces Randolph Garrettson, dubbed "Tank" by Nagler. He is manipulative, resourceful and soulless. His victims, both family and random strangers, are damaged nearly beyond belief. In tackling the web of evil that Garrettson has created, Nagler's own soul is challenged. "Good" triumphs over "evil" but the cost is high. The reader, like the characters, are challenged by this denouement.
Kirkus Review called it, "An involving thriller with a memorable protagonist."
Further, the review said, "Daigle's narrative is well paced, allowing the reader to piece together the clues, and it all leads to a melancholy but satisfying ending."
Other Frank Nagler Mysteries, published by Imzadi Publishing of Tulsa: “The Swamps of Jersey” (2014) and “A Game Called Dead" (2016), which was named a Runner-Up in the 2016 Shelf Unbound Indie Book Contest.