Moon Down (Jim Snow Mystery Book 3)

Kwan Moon was a professional poker player residing in Gilmore, Nevada. He traveled the roads of Nevada and California in his fifth wheel RV, plying his craft. He bought an old saloon in Gilmore, with the intention of remodeling it into a tourist attraction. But that goal was cut short when he was stabbed to death after the conclusion of the weekly poker game in the historic bar.

Jim Snow travels north to Gilmore to investigate—after getting fired from his part time job running a used car dealership. He’ll need to find a new location for his office when he gets back to Vegas. Snow has had worse problems than that to deal with. And he’s about to encounter more of the same.

Available at Amazon and other sites.

Missing Evidence (Jim Snow Mystery Book 2)

The Horstmann brothers, Todd and Gary, both medical doctors in the small town of Wilkie, Nevada like to hunt for geocaches on Friday nights. But one Friday night, younger brother Todd sets out alone and doesn’t come home. His body is discovered near the site of the geocache—missing an important part. The entire town is terrified at the prospect of a serial killer on the loose. But with half a dozen suspects, no one knows who it could be.

Jim Snow travels the two hundred and fifty miles north to Wilkie to begin the search for leads—and possibly the victim’s missing head.

Available at Amazon and other sites.

Maya (Jim Snow Mystery Book 1)

This series picks up where the Las Vegas Mystery series left off. Only the situation has changed.  

Jim Snow is on his own, running the James & James Detective Agency after Alice James moved back to Detroit to accept a permanent job. Feeling somewhat lost, vulnerable, and alone, he’s sitting at his desk playing solitaire when in walks a vivacious new client, Maya Sweet.

She’s cool and collected in spite of the violent demise of her boyfriend, with her estranged husband presented as the main suspect. But what is Maya Sweet’s role in this case? Is she an innocent bystander, or a suspect? And what does she want with Jim Snow?

That’s something Snow will try to figure out as he fumbles his way through this investigation with the aid of his friends at Metro Homicide.

Available from Amazon and other sites.

Reunion (Las Vegas Mystery Book 10)

Jim Snow and Alice James of the James & James Detective Agency have a new client. His administrative assistant contacted them by mistake—but that won’t prevent them from taking on this challenging case. Their new client is a criminal defense attorney, retained by a close childhood friend of his, murder suspect Lee Hund.

The murder victim, Curt Hund, the suspect’s brother, was found shot to death in his bed after the last of the guests left a reunion party at his home on the west side of Las Vegas. The two brothers were business partners, owners and managers of cheap motels in South Dakota, and one on the fringe of downtown Las Vegas, the Wagon Wheel Motel.

Together the brothers organized and hosted the Hund extended family reunion, taking place over the Labor Day weekend in Las Vegas. The festivities are a smashing success until Curt Hund reveals some startling news at the banquet podium—and ends up dead later that night.

This is the final installment in the Las Vegas Mystery series. However, Jim Snow's adventures continue in Maya (Jim Snow Mystery Book 1)

Available from Amazon and other sites.

Rekindled (Las Vegas Mystery Book 9)

Alice James is back in Detroit helping her mother get situated in a nursing home. This leaves Jim Snow alone to investigate their first missing person case involving a wedding photographer who told everyone he was leaving on a photo expedition to supplement the book he’s been working on.

Snow’s not sure how to proceed with this case so he handles it like the usual homicide investigation he has experience with—since the probability of a missing person turning up dead is much more likely than anyone else walking the mean streets of Las Vegas.

Alice finally returns just in time to help out with the case and figure out Snow, as usual, hasn’t been paying attention to details—except when those details have to do with a woman’s body parts.

Available from Amazon and other sites.

Last Hand (Las Vegas Mystery Book 8)

Tracy Green was a master at playing the odds. A professional stock trader, she made extra money as the head of a team of card counters.  They had remained under the radar for years, operating shrewdly six times each year during the busiest holidays. But their luck finally went south the night they were barred from playing at the Clifton Casino in downtown Las Vegas.

That wasn’t the worst event of the evening—a couple hours later Tracy encountered a deadly flaw in the notion of her own invincibility. She was shot to death in her lavish home on a secluded road north of Las Vegas.

With little evidence and meager leads, Private Detectives Alice James and Jim Snow muddle through this new investigation as they continue to deal with Snow’s lackadaisical attitude and Alice’s desire for at least a modicum of professionalism.

Available from Amazon and other sites.

Plunge (Las Vegas Mystery Book 7)

Alice James and Jim Snow are back together working on a new case while trying to resolve their personal differences.  This investigation is focused on a recently retired jockey who was stabbed and thrown off the roof of a parking garage after an argument with his new wife, two friends, and a former NBA hellion who vehemently objected to the victim’s method of play at their blackjack table.

Nobody seemed to like the victim, causing the James & James Detective team to wonder why the barmaid of his favorite dive, a former professional bowler, would want to tie the knot with him in Vegas.

Once it’s discovered the victim planned to write his memoir, supposedly containing an expose of the chicanery going on at a disreputable race track in Bakersfield—Alice and Snow are driven to get to the bottom of it.

Available at Amazon.

Sinker (Las Vegas Mystery Book 6)

Former Las Vegas Homicide Detective Jim Snow has found himself in a tenuous position with his partner Alice James. She’s the other half of their Private Eye firm James & James and she’s back in her hometown tending to her sick mother and contemplating a career change.

This leaves Snow alone in Las Vegas to work his newest case involving the drowning of a former Deputy District Attorney on Lake Mead. But that’s only half the job. He’ll also have to find the victim’s monkey that was with her in her boat that night—and babysit until he can find a primate shelter with a vacancy.

Snow struggles to uncover the events leading up to the drowning, dealing with a diverse assortment of suspects including the victim’s twin sister, an ambulance-chasing estranged husband, an unscrupulous loan shark, and an ex-convict with a bad attitude.

Adding to Snow’s frustration sifting through the clues, he’ll have to work this case on his own—with a monkey riding shotgun instead of the brilliant Alice James.

Available at Amazon.

Coincidentally, I was out on Lake Mead night fishing the same night the victim drowned in Sinker, August 3rd, 2013. With no moon, this was what it looked like:

Smashed (Las Vegas Mystery Book 5)

Private eyes Jim Snow and Alice James are baffled by their new client, Cassie Lane, a buxom casino slot technician who hires them to investigate the murder of her ex-lover, Billy Ryan.

Billy, a professional horseplayer, has been shot outside his home after a night at the casino with his friend Dean Kale. Later, his stolen car strikes and kills a pregnant teen in a hit-and-run not far from the scene of his murder.

Who wanted Billy dead? His wife, Gina, an attractive blonde, is said to be a former model with a rap sheet, but is she not what she seems? Her two derelict brothers? Or was the hit-and-run victim really the intended target, and Billy’s shooting and the theft of his car a premeditated step in the crime?

As Cassie’s behavior becomes ever more bizarre, Snow and Alice make a startling discovery that forces them to consider their own client a suspect.

Available from Amazon and other sites.

Snow Adrift (Las Vegas Mystery Book 4--prequel to Punctured)

This is where his troubles all begin.

Jim Snow’s luck has been going from bad to worse, spurred by a series of rash decisions and a quickly developing mid-life crisis. He’s a former Las Vegas Homicide Detective who quit the force a few years ago to play poker for a living and has been losing steadily for months. Now his money is running out—and so is his live-in girlfriend.

But those are the least of his problems. After one of Snow’s poker buddies—a real estate investor and landlord who worked as a clown—is found shot to death in his home following their weekly game, Snow finds himself under suspicion by his former Metro Homicide partner, Marcia Stevens.

At forty-four, Snow is in the worst mess of his life. He’s not sure what to do, who to turn to, or who to trust as he scrambles to stay one step ahead of an arrest warrant for first-degree murder.

Snow Adrift is the prequel to Punctured.

Available at Amazon and other sites.

Family

Every family has its skeletons in the closet, but Shane Hall’s relatives? They’ve got a cemetery’s worth. Yet when he loses his job and gets evicted, Shane’s only option is to rely on his estranged aunt and cousins for help. He returns to his hometown in rural South Dakota, and despite having been out of touch for over a decade, is welcomed back with booze-soaked hospitality. After settling in, Shane’s cousin approaches him with an offer that’s almost too good to be true: if he comes on board as assistant manager at the family’s salvage yard, he’ll get not only a sky-high salary but also the down payment on a home. It seems like Shane and his girlfriend Katie will be able to put the hard times behind them and start fresh—at least, until some pesky skeletons rise up from the past, leaving Shane uncertain where to turn or who to trust.

Available from Amazon and other sites.

Desert Drop (Las Vegas Mystery Book 3)

Private investigator and former homicide detective Alice James was just six months old when her father, Leon Stapper, abandoned his family. Forty years later, Alice has convinced herself she’s over it—until her half sister, Corina, calls her up and wants to meet. But before Alice and Corina can get acquainted, everything goes terribly, tragically wrong. Determined to uncover the truth behind what happened to her sister, Alice calls in reinforcements: Jim Snow, her partner in Las Vegas’s James & James Detective Agency who knows a thing or two about family drama. Their investigation takes them from Sin City to Silicon Valley, where Alice and Corina’s father reigns as a high-tech CEO. As Alice and Jim dig for clues, they find that Leon’s best friend and attorney Ron Bale took a very personal interest in Corina. Not to mention the fact that he used to be married to Leon’s ex-wife—until she vanished without a trace. Alice is convinced that if she and Jim can uncover the truth about the missing wife, they will discover what happened to Corina. But first, they will need a little help from some old friends.

Available from Amazon and other sites.

Ashes to Dust (Las Vegas Mystery Book 2)

Since first joining forces in Punctured, Alice James and Jim Snow have been a great—if odd—crime-fighting team. He’s a forty-something former Las Vegas homicide detective who quit the force to become a full-time poker player. She’s a model-turned-cocktail waitress whose foray into casino security led her into law enforcement. Together they are the James & James Detective Agency, and their newest case is a doozy. Jack Roberts comes to them for help solving the brutal murder of his daughter Laura, a cocktail waitress whose body was found burning in the Nevada desert. Among the suspects: an obsessive ex-boyfriend, a mentally unbalanced construction worker, a temperamental roommate, a shady fiancé…perhaps even the client himself! Alice knows that if they can crack this case, business will come pouring in. But first she will have to manage Snow’s ill-timed midlife crisis and deal with the chemistry crackling between them. Ashes to Dust is pure entertainment, sure to please even the most hardboiled of mystery fans.

Available from Amazon and other sites.

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Punctured (Las Vegas Mystery Book 1)

Jim Snow and his sister Karen have never been very close. In fact, they haven’t seen each other since their mother’s funeral two years ago, despite living just three miles apart. But then Snow gets a panicked phone call from Karen telling him that her estranged husband has been murdered and she is the number-one suspect. Snow agrees to help, seeing as he’s the only family she has left. Plus he is a Las Vegas homicide detective—or at least, he was until he quit the force to become a full-time poker player. But while his crime-fighting skills may be a little rusty, even he has to admit Karen is a likely suspect. She stands to collect on her dead husband’s life insurance, which is quite the coincidence considering she’s been living on her first two husbands’ insurance for years. Snow isn’t sure whether or not his sister is innocent, and there’s only one way to find out. He joins forces with feisty cocktail waitress-turned-cop Alice James and together they set out amidst the glittering lights of Vegas to solve this whodunit.

Available from Amazon and other sites. 

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Angela

Life can be a game of Russian roulette with the Grim Reaper where timing and luck may play a major role in determining fate. Johnny Buck doesn’t understand this. He’s an impetuous kid with a suicidal father who suddenly wants Johnny and his mother dead.

Throughout his life Johnny makes a lot of bad choices based on impulsive behavior and wishful thinking. He finds himself involved with the wrong women while the promising ones seem to slip away. Coincidentally—all of them except one are named Angela.

In his late twenties Johnny finds himself becoming attracted to the spellbinding writing of a mysterious novelist using the pen name Samantha Sommers. He conjures up a stunning image of her to match her prose. Becoming infatuated with her, Johnny decides to write her a long letter expressing his attraction to her captivating writing style and fascinating characters. He reveals his desire to meet her.  She replies with a brief letter stating bluntly that it wouldn’t be a good idea. Still he wonders who she is.

Through a course of events that seem to be guided by fate—he’s about to find out.

Available at Amazon.