My Musing ~ 19 Souls by J.D. Allen

19 Souls by J.D. Allen is the first book in the NEW “Sin City Investigation” private investigator series. Publisher: Midnight Ink, coming February 8, 2018

Private Investigator Jim Bean is a straightforward, to-the-point man. When his latest client, Sophie Evers, asks him to find her brother Daniel, Jim has no idea how complicated his life is about to become.

Daniel is not Sophie’s brother. He is her most coveted prey. Clinging to the belief that they belong together, Sophie kills Daniel’s real sister to manipulate Jim into flushing Daniel out of hiding. She will create the “perfect life” for the only man she’s ever loved, no matter how many people she must kill along the way.

When Jim discovers the truth about Sophie, he’s driven to set things right before her delusional plan claims even more souls.

This fast-paced, action packed drama grabbed my attention immediately, quickly becoming a page turner as I could not put this book down until the last page was read. From the start, the narrative was gripping descriptive as the voices of Jim, the private investigator and Sophie, the serial killer was heard, giving me a better perspective on their personalities. The premise was suspensefully intoxicating keeping me in tuned to all that was happening. The author took me on a captivating ride as I didn’t know what Sophie would do next and it was Jim’s response that had me rooting for him to overcome his misstep. Where the drama holds me is in the psychological game that Sophie believably plays and the determination of Jim to make it right. Overall, a good rocking thriller that is rivetingly dangerous.

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FTC Full Disclosure – I received an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) from the publisher.

A day in the life of Charlie Mack by Cheryl A. Head

Charlie was ten minutes into her gym workout when the phone chimed in her earbud. The treadmill’s digital display illuminated 6 a.m. so it was probably her mother. But it could also be a client. Charlie loosened the phone from her waist clip to look at the caller ID. It was Mandy. She turned the speed on the treadmill to 3, and glanced at the man running next to her who seemed focused on cable news.

“What’s wrong, honey?”

“Don just called. He tried to reach you, but you didn’t pick up. He said the mayor’s office wants a meeting at 8 a.m.”

“The mayor?” Charlie said louder than she’d intended. Her neighboring runner’s attention shifted to her.

“Hold on.”

She stepped off the treadmill and headed to the locker room. The gym was packed this morning with Detroit’s young professionals, die-hard health buffs, and a few of the city’s movers and shakers who were walking, riding, gliding, lifting, and pumping before they had to tackle one of Detroit’s dreary February workdays.

“I guess that’s it for exercise. I was going to see Ernestine before I went into the office. I guess that’s off, too.”

“How is your mom?”

“She met with her doctor yesterday. I want to look at the results of her test.”

“When you see her, go slow. She needs to be in charge for as long as the Alzheimer’s will let her.”

“I know. Gotta go. I’ll see you tonight.

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The best thing Charlie’s ex-soldier, ex-husband, Franklin had taught her was the 5-minute shower, and she was dressed and in the office by 7 a.m. Don and Gil were already there, and they must have rousted Judy, because she was making coffee.

“Who made the call?” Charlie asked Don.

“The press secretary.”

“Shit. That means Kilpatrick is in another mess, and they want us to run interference.”

“If we take him as a client, we’ll risk our reputation with the business community, and our county government networks,” Gil warned.

“Right, but I don’t see how we can ignore the invitation to meet. We’ll all three go. Don, call DPD. See if any of your police pals know what’s going on. Gil, you’ll be wearing your lawyer hat. We may need a legal reason to say ‘no’ to the mayor.

“I imagine you’ll be doing your black-woman-in-charge act,” Judy said smiling.

Judy’s office manager talents were the least of her assets. She was an astute strategist, liar, and massager of egos, skills that had more than once given the Mack Private Investigations agency an edge over its competitors.

“It’s a tried-and-true way to operate in Detroit,” Charlie replied. “After all, black women have had to solve complex problems all our lives. We know how to put two and two together, see past the BS, and cut through red tape.”

“Excuse me while I get in touch with one of my contacts at headquarters,” Don interrupted. “I’ll be ready to leave in 15 minutes.”

Judy shared a look with Gil and Charlie. In a stage whisper, she offered her assessment. “I guess Don will be driving again.”

“Whatever, Novak,” Don hollered over his shoulder.

“No worries, Judy. I learned a long time ago the best way to maintain control is to give some of it away,” Charlie said.

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You can read more about Charlie Mack in Bury Me When I’m Dead, the first installment of the “Charlie Mack Motown” Mysteries.

Charlene “Charlie” Mack is a PI in Detroit. Born and raised in the city that America forgot, Charlie has built a highly respected firm through hard work, smart choices, and relentless ambition. But she also secretly struggles with her sexual orientation, and supports a mother with early-onset Alzheimer’s. When Charlie and her crack team of investigators head to Birmingham, Alabama following the trail of a missing person, what should be a routine case turns into an intricate chase for answers. Shady locals, a southern patriarch with dark secrets, and the FBI obscure their path. It seems like everyone has something to hide, including Charlie. When the case turns violent, with a double murder and an attack on Charlie on a neighborhood street, everything suddenly becomes personal. Who can Charlie trust, and how will she solve the riddles of the Magic City?

Bury Me When I’m Dead was a 2017 Lambda Literary Award Finalist for Lesbian Mystery.

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Meet the Author
A Detroit native, Cheryl A. Head now lives on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. She navigated a successful career in public broadcasting before focusing on fiction writing. Her debut work, Long Way Home: A World War II Novel, was a 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist in both the African American Literature, and Historical Fiction categories. The next book in the Charlie Mack Motown Mysteries, Wake Me When It’s Over, will be available May 2018. Head is the Director of Inclusion for the Golden Crown Literary Society. Visit her at: cherylhead.com.

A day in the life with Kate McCall by Rich Leder

Hi there. I’m Kate McCall, the 45-year-old single mother of Matthew McCall, a rising star in the Manhattan DA’s office. I’m an off-off-off-off-Broadway actor, singing and dancing at the DCup theater in absurd, original musicals performed with passion by the Schmidt and Parker Players.

I’m also a private investigator.

I inherited the business from my father, Jimmy McCall, after he was murdered. I never wanted to be a PI (though I had my license because I helped Jimmy with his cases when I was between side jobs), but I also needed the money—I live in New York City. Meaning when Jimmy’s lawyer sent me a workman’s compensation case during Jimmy’s wake, I took it.

I live in and manage a walk-up brownstone on the Upper East Side of Manhattan—a dwelling I affectionately call the House of Emotional Tics—and I use the eccentric tenants of the brownstone and the histrionic actors in my theater troupe to help me solve my cases, one of which is trying to catch the asshole who murdered my father.

Anyway, that’s how it started. It’s tough to tie down my typical day—did I mention I was an actor and a PI?—so I’ll run through a laundry list of the things I might do on any given day.

I box—serious, hardcore training—four days a week, so you can find me at Raul’s Gym in Hell’s Kitchen. I’ve been going there and working with Raul since I was 14 years old and Jimmy wanted me to learn how to defend myself. Trust me, I can. I run around the Central Park reservoir on the days I’m not at Raul’s, so I’m in good shape for a woman my age.

Since I’m an actor, I use my acting skills, my cool collection of wigs and colored contact lenses and costumes collected from a lifetime of no-budget indie films, hapless television pilots, latenight cable TV commercials, and whacky way-off-Broadway musicals to work my cases. Meaning on any given day, I become a character to get information I might otherwise not have access to. For instance, today I was Marsha Friedrich, an ethics investigator for the New York Bar Association. I interviewed one of the partners at Lowry Lowe, a law firm at which one of the partners (maybe the one I met with) is hiring the same assassin who murdered my father to kill the other partners. I’ve played a hooker, a cop, an FBI agent, a horse country realtor, and a dozen other roles to solve my cases. Sometimes it’s not legal to impersonate the person I’m impersonating. Sometimes I get arrested.

Getting arrested isn’t really part of a typical day in my life. But it could be.

I’m a foodie, and I’m in the NYC, so I love to eat at all the fabulous spots New Yorkers know where you don’t have to be a Daddy Warbucks to afford dinner. I do laundry, update my case notes, clean my apartment, balance my checkbook, talk to my son, cook dinner, read magazines. . .all the things single mothers do every day.

Plus, I go to rehearsal during the week and perform on the weekends. I suppose that’s different than a lot single moms. And I investigate cases—like workman’s compensation and stolen identity and embezzlement—while I’m on the tail of the creep who killed Jimmy. I’m pretty confident that’s different than a lot of single moms.

Oh yeah, and I might text back and forth with the guy who shot Jimmy’s eyes out. He’s challenging me to catch him. I’m planning on it.

It’s not a normal life (much to my son’s dismay), but I love to sing and dance and act and being a PI is growing on me. If I can stay out of jail—and alive—long enough to catch the killer who murdered my father, then I might just stick with it.

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You can read more about Kate in Emboozlement, the third book in the “McCall and Company” mystery series.

ONE SLIPPERY SPORTS BAR EMBEZZLER
TWO DEAD DECADENT DIVORCE LAWYERS
MCCALL & COMPANY ON THE CASE

PI Kate McCall was warned to stay home, stay put, and stay out of NYPD business. But someone is killing Lowry Lowe lawyers, and Kate is sure her father’s murderer is pulling the trigger. At the same time, former Major League relief pitcher Steve “Blue” Stark wants her to catch the crook embezzling big bucks from his West Side sports bar.

Kate can’t help but get in the game.

The problem is the killer is cluing her in before murdering each lawyer and she’s falling for Blue as fast as he’s becoming her prime suspect.

Can Kate and her crackpot crew catch her father’s killer before all the lawyers are dead? And will she find real love with dreamboat Blue? Or will she have to lock him up for stealing his own money?

If she comes through the kidnappings, she might beat the odds.

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Meet the author
Rich Leder has been a working writer for more than two decades. His screen credits include 18 produced television films for CBS, Lifetime, and Hallmark, feature films for Paramount Pictures, Tri-Star Pictures, and Left Bank Films, and four novels for Laugh Riot Press.

He has been the lead singer in a Detroit rock band, a restaurateur, a Little League coach, an indie film director, a literacy tutor, a magazine editor, a screenwriting coach, a PTA board member, a commercial real estate agent, and a visiting artist for the University of North Carolina Wilmington Film Studies Department, among other things, all of which, it turns out, was grist for the mill. He resides on the North Carolina coast with his awesome wife, Lulu, and is sustained by the visits home of their three children.

Reach out to Rich at richleder.com, on Amazon, on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Twitter.

My Musing ~ Sticks and Bone by Carolyn Haines

Sticks and Bones is the 17th book in the “Sarah Booth Delaney” mystery series. Publisher: Minotaur Books, May 2017

Private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney and her friends are celebrating New Year’s Eve at the party of the year, a smashing Winter Garden party at the Prince Albert Hotel. It’s a dazzling success…until Frangelica “Sister” McFee walks through the door. Sarah Booth knew Sister in college, before Sister became a bestselling author and moved to New York, and fame and fortune don’t seem to have tempered her arrogance and cruelty.

Sister’s latest book is a memoir about the death of her mother and brother many years ago. Now, a film about the book is in the works, and a film crew has descended upon Zinnia, Mississippi, to tell the complete tale. The film crew soon realizes there may be more to the story than meets the eye―or is told in Sister’s memoir―and they hire Sarah Booth to discover the absolute truth about those deaths so many years ago. But Sarah Booth quickly realizes that someone is desperate to keep the truth hidden and will go to any lengths necessary to protect a long-held secret.

Carolyn Haines’s next Sarah Booth Delaney novel, Sticks and Bones, is sure to delight series fans and newcomers alike.

I love, love, love Sticks and Bones. This book kept me engrossed and enthralled in all aspects in the telling of this tale. The mystery was enjoyable and the interaction with the main cast and the visitors kept me glued to the pages. The narrative was visually appealing, putting me smack dab in the middle of that was happening in this fast-paced drama that oozes southern charm. All the major characters play pivotal roles and one of my favorite scenes featured Sarah Booth, Coleman and Tinkie. Yes, I’m still smiling at the remembrance. With an eccentrically quirky cast of characters and engaging dialogue, this is the best book in the series thus far and I can’t wait for the next one in this delightfully endearing series.

A day in the life with Fina Ludlow by Ingrid Thoft

Fina punched the address into her phone and waited for the navigation to begin. She’d recently changed the voice to an Australian man who sounded less judgy than the Brit before.

She’d never been to the Anchor, a dive bar slash seafood restaurant a few streets from Boston’s theater district, but she knew that Dante Trimonti conducted business from a booth in the back when he wasn’t at the night club. Dante was a pimp on the rise; a greasy, but handsome guy Fina plied for information. She didn’t like his line of work, but she also knew that she wasn’t going to change him. She might as well use him.

Inside the bar, red glass lanterns sat atop the tables, and thickly braided fishing nets were strung along the walls. The bar stools were a mishmash of backless pleather and heavy wood ones that rotated with a groan. Fina gave her eyes a moment to adjust and moved to the back of the space, where Dante sat contemplating an overflowing plate of fried food.

“That looks good,” Fina said, reaching out and snagging a fried scallop.

“Paws off, Ludlow!”

“Take it easy. There’s enough to feed a whole boat crew.”

Dante sipped his beer and ran a hand across his mouth. “Your manners suck.”

Fina chewed the scallop, which was cooked just right, not rubbery nor raw. “May I have some more? Please, sir?”

Dante scowled at her. “Will it make you leave faster?”

“Yes.”

He pushed the plate in her direction. She picked out a clam and dipped it into the small paper cup of tartar sauce.

“So, let me guess,” Dante ventured. “You need something.”

“Actually, I’m here to do you a favor.”

His eyebrow rose, and the hint of a smile curled the corners of his mouth.

“Oh, please,” Fina said. “Don’t get your hopes up.” She reached for a full glass of water next to his beer and took a drink. “There’s someone who’s looking for you.”

“Yeah. Who’s that?”

“Her name is Lydia.”

Dante was chewing a French fry, but the motion changed when Fina mentioned the young woman. It was as if any pleasure he had been deriving from the act was gone.

A fried shrimp called to her from the plate while she waited for him to respond.

“Do you know Lydia or is there some mix-up?” she asked when he remained silent.

“What’s she look like?” He sniffed as if suddenly overcome with a cold.

“She’s pretty. Thin, light brown hair to about here.” Fina motioned to her shoulders. “She called herself Lydia Rialta, but she couldn’t produce an ID.”

“What does she want?”

“She wants to talk to you, but she said you wouldn’t be very receptive.”

“It that why she hired you? To be her message girl?”

“I think she didn’t want to just show up out of the blue.”

Dante sat back in the booth. He rolled his shoulders as if prepping for a fight. “She didn’t have any problem disappearing into the blue.”

“What’s the story with you two?” Fina asked. A dollop of tartar sauce decorated the flimsy paper placemat under Dante’s plate. She could see an illustration of a lobster with a wide smile; not hip to his fate, apparently.

“I don’t want to talk to her. Tell her no dice.”

“C’mon, Dante. What’s the deal? Did she break your heart?”

He took a pull from his beer and stared at the door, closing behind a departing customer. “She’s my sister.”

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You can read more about Fina in Duplicity, the fourth book in the “Fina Ludlow” private investigator series.

Gutsy Boston P.I. Fina Ludlow returns with a case that puts her faith to the test—in the latest addition to the critically acclaimed series by Ingrid Thoft.

When Ceci Renard hires Ludlow and Associates to sue the hip new church that she believes has brainwashed her daughter, Fina Ludlow is assigned to the case. Covenant Rising Church has all the trappings of a less-than-holy organization: a slick young pastor and his comely wife; fancy houses and luxury cars; and devoted congregants who seem eager to part with their money. Fina wonders if Ceci disapproves of Covenant Rising’s theology or the pastor’s ability to solicit generous donations—until a prominent church member dies unexpectedly. Fina’s investigation requires her to delve into the woman’s life—both in and out of Covenant Rising—and ask a host of difficult questions. Is the pastor leading his flock astray? Did the church have a hand in the death or were there less savory elements in the woman’s life outside the parish?

The case proves to be a complicated morass of misplaced loyalties and questionable motivations, rivaled only by the current state of the Ludlow family. The return of eldest brother Rand sets in motion an explosive showdown that threatens the very fabric that holds the family together, forcing Fina to confront the true meaning of faith.

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Meet the author
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Ingrid Thoft is the author of the critically acclaimed Fina Ludlow series. Loyalty, Identity, Brutality, and Duplicity feature the Boston private investigator who tangles with the city’s criminal element and her family of personal injury attorneys. The series has been called “sizzling” by Entertainment Weekly and “dazzling” by Publishers Weekly. Brutality won the Shamus Award for Best P.I. Novel, and Loyalty was nominated for the Shamus Award for best debut P.I. novel. Ingrid earned a certificate in private investigation from the University of Washington in her quest to create a believable private investigator character and is also a graduate of Wellesley College. She lives in Seattle with her husband. Connect with Ingrid at ingridthoft.com.

All comments are welcomed.

Duplicity is available at retail and online booksellers or you can ask your local library to get it for you.

A Day in the Life of PI Delanie Fitzgerald by Heather Weidner

My brother, Lt. Steve Fitzgerald thinks I need to find a normal job. My name is Delanie Fitzgerald, and I’m quite pleased with my career choice of private investigator. I own Falcon Investigations. I do most of the sleuthing, and my partner, computer whiz, Duncan Reynolds, has a way with research. The rest of the world calls it hacking, but I look the other way because he has a way of getting computers to cough up information that people want to keep hidden.

Most days, I go to the office with Duncan and Margaret, his English bulldog, or run errands like everyone else. But with this job, I do get to play dress up and spy – usually on wayward husbands. My brother calls it stalking for a living. But I like to think that I’m a grown up Nancy Drew. I just show up at the mark’s favorite bar in my little black dress and see what happens. It’s amazing what people will tell a stranger.

People think that investigating is glamorous. It can be, but if I’m not working, I spend most evenings with what’s on my DVR in my Sears Catalog home. It’s the Yates model, and the original owners ordered it from Sears in 1939. The pieces arrived by train and were eventually assembled into my bungalow. It’s quirky, but it fits my style.

New cases are exciting, but they can involve long hours of stakeouts and talking to everyone and his brother who could have information pertinent to the case. I enjoy the people part. I learned a long time ago that if I carry a clipboard and look official, people will tell me just about anything. I keep a bag of work gear: clipboards, lanyards with lots of IDs, and a variety of hats and wigs in the trunk of my black Mustang for any occasion. It also helps that Duncan likes gadgets. He always has the latest hidden microphone, camera, or bugging device. I have a purse and a hat that conceal a camera. They all come in handy during investigations. I wish we had a drone. That would make stakeouts more interesting. I’ll have to check with Duncan about that.

Recently, we’ve acquired two clients with interesting requests that didn’t involve cheating husbands. The first came from a tell-all author in California. She wants Duncan and I to chase down rumors that 80s pop star, Johnny Velvet of the Vibes, faked his death and is living incognito in rural Virginia. Johnny Velvet was as big as Wham! and Culture Club in the Big 80s, and everyone knows he died in a fiery car crash on a bridge in Los Angeles. I had his posters on my wall in elementary school, and his music was part of every mix tape I made. Why would he give up stardom and retreat to a farm in the middle of nowhere? If the answer’s out there, Duncan and I will find it.

And if that’s not enough to keep me busy, local strip club owner, Chaz Wellington Smith, III hired us to look into allegations that someone at city hall was thwarting his efforts to open a new club near the museum district. And about the time I was wrapping up my research for Chaz, the mayor ended up dead in his Mercedes in front of Chaz’s club, The Treasure Chest. I have a feeling that I’ll be spending the next few months helping Chaz clear his name. Usually a poster boy for the hipster generation (a demographic that he’s aged out of), Chaz wears shiny suits with open collars and lots of jewelry and drives a gold Hummer, wrapped in bikini-clad advertisements for his club. Despite his rough edges and bad table manners, Chaz grows on you after a while. And more importantly, he always pays in cash. Chaz may be sleazy, but I don’t think he’s a murderer. Duncan and I are determined to find the real killer.

– Delanie

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Secret Lives and Private Eyes is the first book in the NEW Delanie Fitzgerald mystery series, published by Koehler Books, May 2016.

Business has been slow for Private Investigator, Delanie Fitzgerald, but her luck seems to change when a tell-all author hires her to find rock star, Johnny Velvet. Could the singer whose career purportedly ended in a fiery crash almost thirty years ago, still be alive?

And as though sifting through dead ends in a cold case isn’t bad enough, Chaz Wellington Smith, III, a loud-mouthed, strip club owner, also hires Delanie to uncover information about the mayor’s secret life. When the mayor is murdered, Chaz, is the key suspect. Now Delanie must clear his name and figure out why landscaper Tripp Payne, keeps popping up in her other investigation. Can the private investigator find the connection between the two cases before another murder – possibly her own – takes place?

Secret Lives and Private Eyes is a fast-paced mystery that will appeal to readers who like a strong, female sleuth with a knack for getting herself in and out of humorous situations.

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Meet the author
Heather Weidner’s short stories appear in Virginia is for Mysteries and Virginia is for Mysteries Volume II. Currently, she is President of Sisters in Crime – Central Virginia, and a member of Guppies and Lethal Ladies Write. Secret Lives and Private Eyes is her debut novel.

Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers.

Heather earned her BA in English from Virginia Wesleyan College and her MA in American literature from the University of Richmond. Through the years, she has been a technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager.

Connect with Heather: Website and Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon Authors | Pinterest | LinkedIn

All comments are welcomed.

Giveaway: Leave a comment below for your chance to win a print copy of Secret Lives and Private Eyes. US entries only, please. The giveaway will end August 11, 2016 at 12 AM (midnight) EST. Good luck everyone!

A Day in the Life with William Fletcher by Grant Bywaters

I rolled out of bed, stretched and started shadow boxing. It was a habit I formed many years ago during my years of training for a foolish belief of getting a chance to fight for the heavyweight championship. I was just cocky enough during those days to think that my skills would be enough for the color line to the belt to be withdrawn. But it didn’t matter how good you were, the country was not ready back then to accept another colored heavyweight champ.

With bitterness and resentment brewing to the surface like bile, I threw more punches into the air. If you would have asked my older trainer, that was the answer to everything. You caught your wife sleeping with another man in your own bed, throw more punches. Your machine breaks down on the way to work, throw more punches.

I laughed. If it was only that simple to solve my problems by such means today. But I was no longer William Fletcher the top heavyweight contender of the world but William Fletcher the colored private investigator of New Orleans. My youth went with the Roaring Twenties and now here I was middle age trying to make a buck during The Depression. I could only take on colored clients, but few of them had any money, so my case load had been dry for months. To make matters worse, yesterday a white man from my past who I did not care to ever see again shows up and wants me to find his long lost daughter.

I showered, dressed and went to a diner down the street from my flat to get breakfast. The food wasn’t great but the hospitality made up for it. By that, I mean they allowed coloreds to eat there. The place was what you would expect. Not wanting to sit on one of the rusted fountain stools that ran along a greasy counter top, I took a seat at an empty table and waited for the middle aged Creole waitress to take my order.

“What can I get you, handsome?”

I smirked. If I had ever been handsome it was many years ago. The life in the ring had made my mug look like it had been ran over by a heavy treaded tire a few times.

“Eggs, bacon and some coffee. Black!”

She left. I pulled out a cigarette and sat looking at the fly that was buzzing around my table. When it landed, I hit it with such force I nearly knocked the table over. The few patrons at the bar looked over as I wiped the remains of the fly on a napkin. I gave them a big grin that almost sent them out the door.

“You’re like a bull in a china shop, ain’t ya?” the Creole waitress said when she arrived with a pot of coffee.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been in a china shop in my life.”

“You don’t say,” she said as she poured the coffee. “Now, you just take an easy. Your food is a comin’. Don’t go takin’ down the rest of the joint. A girl’s got to work, see.”

My food came shortly later. The eggs were over cooked and so was the bacon. How the hell do you overcook bacon? I broke a piece in half with my thumb and sent it across my plate. The waitress gave me the kind of look a mother gives their kid when they dump sugar down pop’s gas tank.

I stood up, dropped some change on the table, and grabbed my lid as I headed to the door. I could already tell it was going to be a long day.

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Red Storm is the author’s first novel published by Minotaur, December 2015

Winner of the Minotaur Books/Private Eye Writers of America Best First Private Eye Novel Competition introducing a black ex-boxer P.I. working in 1930s New Orleans

Newly-minted private investigator William Fletcher is having trouble finding clientele. He’s not the only man out of work, but his past as a former heavyweight contender with a few shady connections-not to mention the color of his skin in race-obsessed New Orleans-isn’t helping lure clients to his door. Stuck without any viable alternative, he takes a case from an old criminal acquaintance, Storm. His only client assures him that the job is simple-locate his missing estranged daughter, Zella, no questions asked.

But when Fletcher starts knocking on doors, he sets off a catastrophic chain of events that turn the city into a bloody battleground between two rival syndicates. Then Storm is murdered and Fletcher finds himself caught between the police and dangerous mobsters. With Zella’s safety in the balance, the unlikely private detective finds himself with a lot more than he bargained for.

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Meet the author
Grant Bywaters has worked as a licensed private investigator and is currently finishing his Bachelor’s degree in psychology at Portland State University. Bywaters lives outside of Portland, Oregon. The Red Storm is his first novel.

Giveaway: Leave comment below for your chance to win a print copy of Red Storm. US entries only, please. The giveaway will end March 18, 2016 at 12 AM EST. Good luck everyone!

All comments are welcomed.