Stories

Read, play, solve. My full-length novels and short stories are puzzles designed to be solved. I give you everything you need to unmask the bad guy, wrapped in a world with great characters, humor, and humanity. Click on the images for detail info on the stories as well as the buy links. Happy Hunting, Detectives!

De La Cruz Case Files Series

Case #4: Playing Dead

Finally, the reign of Rotten Carter is over. It is the day Cruz dreamt of. But now he needs to figure out who dressed him up like the king of hearts after taking him out.

Case #3: Razing Stakes

Accountant Colin McHenry was out for his daily run when an SUV crushed him. Really, why would anyone want to kill an accountant?

Case #2: Driving Reign

A young woman is in a coma from an apparent overdose…but if she did it herself, why were there two 9-1-1 calls?

Case #1: Exacting Justice

A serial killer is on the loose and he’s cleaning up the streets of Cleveland one drug dealer at a time.

Diamond Series

Diamond, the last

Diamond doesn’t want to see a therapist, but if she did, she wouldn’t pick one who had to jump from her own office window to escape the bad guys. Damn it. Now she has to get involved. Again.

Diamond, the middle

A blond with a note and a missing husband leans on Diamond’s doorbell. It’s a case she can’t turn down. F#$%ing IOUs.

Diamond, the first

Diamond. One name for a woman with one purpose: to solve the mystery of her husband’s death no matter who she has to go through

Short Story Anthologies

Games are a thing for children; a pastime for those with nothing better to do…or are they?

Games are a part of every culture and go back further than human records. Take the simple marble which has been found in the tombs of the ancient Egyptians, in the ashes in Pompeii, and in North American native archeology. Games are one of the oldest forms of social interaction and engagement. Games can be fun, challenging and exhilarating. They can also be intense, cutthroat, and lethal.

From the brandy distilled from hard cider known as applejack to that nefarious one-eyed jack, to the animals, vegetables, fruits, tools, weapons, and slang, the way the word “jack” is used in the English language is truly unique, inventive, and too numerous for us to count. Twelve jacking good stories arranged for you to beat the detective to the answer.

Vehicles define eras and are a means for advancing economies from traditional to high mass-consumption. They can also play diverse roles within amazing stories. Twelve different ways to move it. Twelve stories arranged for you to deduce the truth. It’s a race between you and the detective. Will you catch the culprit or will you be the one to lose it?

In the last moments of life, a single word can be the difference between justice and obscurity. Nuts. Hiawatha. In Vino Veritas. El Melena. Bad Luck. Sue Her. Best Friend. Ghost. Shadow. Nine enigmatic phrases. Nine stories arranged for your to deduce the truth before the detective takes center stage.

Sam and Rachel find themselves in a diner in Wisconsin Dells, WI in the middle of winter. The calm in the middle of the storm is looking to be long and non-profitable. Then they hear about Catalonia Shoals, a retirement community for the uber rich and bored. A new con is started, one that will give the residents what they most want. But as the game unfolds, it’s getting hard to tell who is the mark and who is the grifter.