Dead Lil' Hustler


Book Description

Police Chief Lewellyn Ferris unravels a double mystery deep within the national forest in the fourteenth installment of the gripping Loon Lake Mystery series. It's mid-July in Loon Lake, and Police Chief Lewellyn Ferris has her hands full with the discovery of the skeletal remains of a missing bank executive and the murder of graduate student. To complicate matters, both victims were discovered on a hidden river deep in the heart of the national forest—a place that just so happens to be a dangerous wolf rendezvous site. Lew recruits her close friend and fellow flyfisherman, retired dentist "Doc" Osborne, for his forensic and interrogation skills. But Doc has his own set of problems to worry about: his grandson is hospitalized with a grave illness, and now Lew seems to be getting too interested in the father of the murdered student—a well-to-do widower who is teaching her the Japanese art of tenkara flyfishing.




Dead Deceiver


Book Description

It's late January in Loon Lake and bodies abound: a woman on snowshoes has been discovered wedged under a wooden bridge on a cross-country ski trail. A day later, Police Chief Lewellyn Ferris interviews a couple who alleges that the wife, a former nun, is being stalked. Meanwhile, Loon Lake is hosting an International Ice Fishing Festival with problems.




Dead Insider


Book Description

In the midst of a catastrophic August rainstorm, a grisly discovery shatters the serenity of a summer evening in northern Wisconsin. Moving quickly to prevent a panic among tourists, Loon Lake Police Chief Lewellyn Ferris enlists the forensic and interrogation skills of her close friend and fellow fly fisherman, the retired dentist "Doc" Osborne. Within hours of launching their investigation, they find themselves faced with a national media circus as Loon Lake becomes the focus of a murderous scenario that links the murder to the race for the U.S. Senate by a woman who is heir to a Northwoods fortune and other, less savory, family traditions. In the meantime, Doc Osborne's eldest daughter, Mallory, enters into a relationship that may put her life at risk--unless her father and Chief Ferris can find the killer stalking the residents of Loon Lake.




Dead Hot Shot


Book Description

Murder never takes a holiday...or so Loon Lake learns one wintry Thanksgiving Day. Chief of Police Lew Ferris, short-handed thanks to an AWOL coroner, never even gets the turkey stuffed before the bodies start to surface. By the end of the day, credit card theft and dysfunctional families have so muddied the waters that not even expert tracker and dedicated fishing guide Ray Pradt can hope to fish the final day of muskie season. And while retired dentist Doc Osborne had counted on sitting by the fire with Lew (out of uniform) and planning a fly-fishing trip to Wyoming, the unexpected arrival of Gina Palmer, former investigative reporter turned forensics database expert, ramps up the action with her pursuit of a Canadian link to the theft of merchandise from stores across the upper Midwest. Dead Hot Shot, ninth in the Loon Lake Mystery series, is a heady mix of murder, mayhem, and fishing in the northwoods of Wisconsin.




Dead Big Dawg


Book Description

Murder, She Wrote meets Fargo in the Northwoods of Wisconsin in the nineteenth “gripping, atmospheric, and smart” (T. Jefferson Parker, New York Times bestselling author) installment of the Loon Lake series. When the bodies of a wealthy Chicago industrialist and his wife are discovered in their summer home at the same time that a local lawyer disappears, life becomes complicated for Loon Lake Chief of Police Lew Ferris. Relying on the forensic dental expertise of her close friend and acting coroner, Doc Osborne, Lew soon finds the investigations are even more complicated than she thought when a rarely used computer belonging to a local sawmill operation is taken over by foreign hackers. Add to that the family issues facing both Lew and Doc, and this Northwoods summer becomes both hot and dangerous. Engaging and fast-paced, Dead Big Dawg is a clever mystery perfect for fans of Lee Goldberg and Janet Evanovich.




Loving a Younger Man


Book Description

More than half the American women who marry for the second time choose younger men. Based on her own experience and numerous interviews, Houston, happily married to a man nine years her junior, explains why this revolutionary trend is so successful--and rewarding.




Dead Renegade


Book Description

As Lew investigates, uncanny coincidences accumulate like snow on the frozen, deadly surface of Loon Lake... It's late January and Loon Lake is hosting an International Ice Fishing Festival. Police Chief Lewellyn Ferris and her limited team are busy with the usual headaches and then some, and Doc Osborne is busy studying fly-casting videos in an effort to impress Lew come spring. But a panicked call from Rob Beltner leads to a sad discovery: his wife, Kathy, is dead of a gunshot wound. Lew barely begins to investigate the shooting before she's sidetracked by the imposing figure of Patience Schumacher, president of Wheedon Technical College--and she's certain she's being stalked.




The Blue Terraplane


Book Description

The Blue Terraplane is a 89 page novel. This novel is written in the local unadorned Black dialect spoken in 1937 Bronzeville, Chicago. Bishop Flipper was a poor runaway southern Black orphaned teenager who encountered a starving crippled old Black man with a three-legged dog. After sharing his meager food with this old man, the old man promised the orphaned teenager a blessed life in Chicago for six and a half years. On July 12, 1937, Madame Madelyn, a frail pipe-smoking elderly woman, invited Bishop to her to mysterious storefront business. Madelyn, a voodoo priestess, warned her guest that his blessed six-and-a-half year period would end on July 13, 1937. This old lady offered the young man a battered old bronze magic ring, which she claimed would protect him from any harm. At noon, July 13, Bishop encounters Raoul La Croix and Paloma Issert. Raoul was huge menacing-looking, baldheaded Black man with a long serpentine stiletto who was treating the helpless Paloma Issert in the local Illinois Central train station. Paloma Issert was a young girl, from Algiers, Louisiana, who was desperately attempting to escape from Raoul. Quickly, Raoul became Bishop's adversary, while Paloma became his femme fatale.




Hustler Days


Book Description

A rollicking portrait of the kings of the cues




Betrayal of a Hustler


Book Description

Chino Wells is a hustler operating out of the city of New York who employs teenaged boys to do his dirty work. His mentor, who goes by the name of Shark, is one of the most reputable hustlers in New York City. Chino's father used to work for Shark and when he was killed, Chino never stopped blaming Shark for destroying his family. So when Chino's best friend Donell Stephens, who has just been released from prison on parole, helps Chino to pull a heist that puts a one million dollar dent in Shark's pocket, a whirlwind of mayhem and murder begins. Lisa Spencer is Donnell's girl. Or so he thinks...She is actually having a hot and heavy affair with Chino, and has been for quite a few years now. Lisa is caught in a triangle between the two men she loves and her own beliefs of where she should be at this point in her life. She wants to get away from the street life and pursue her dreams, even though she doesn't quite know what her dreams are. But she's caught up! She's sexually addicted to Chino and he to her. When Donell resorts back to his old ways as soon as he comes home, Lisa decides to leave him. She finds comfort in Chino's arms. All Chino wanted was to avenge his father's death... Vengeance is an understatement as all of Chino's actions unfold into a series of events that would shake his circle of friends forever. Join these two on an adventure of lust, love, murder and danger as they discover the high price to pay for the betrayal of a hustler... THE FIRST OF A TRILOGY