Valentine's Day

"Trust me, I'm almost a detective." The ink is barely dry on Richard Valentine’s private investigator’s license before his very first client frames him for a homicide, forcing Rick to accept help from ex-boss and top LA sleuth Dako Farona to get himself out of trouble. Rick has no love for Farona, who paid him only slave wages during three years of legwork, but he gets caught up in one of Dako’s cases after learning it links back to his own father, a police officer killed in the line of duty while Rick was still in kindergarten. When someone sabotages the case by shooting Farona, Rick steps in to take over. With a little help from the women in his life—including his octogenarian landladies, the duplicitous receptionist at Rick’s old job and Dako’s beautiful daughter—the neophyte detective morphs into a semi-seasoned P.I. while unraveling the heartbreaking truth about his father’s murder.

Valentine’s Day (P.I. Mystery)

By April Kelly

Flight Risk Books

ISBN #978-0692477977

Price $12.95

304 Pages

“Filled with drama, humor, and the required bumps on the head.”

Newly licensed private detective, Richard Valentine is happy to be on his own after working for the hugely successful Farona Investigations. But things aren’t panning out, so Valentine goes to his ex boss, Dako Farona to ask for handouts of some clients; instead, he’s asked by Laurel, whom he believes is merely Farona’s secretary, to guard an envelope. But like everything else about this story, Laurel isn’t all that she’s supposed to be, and the envelope he’s holding could well get him killed.

The mystery surrounds the hotly pursued political race for city mayor of L.A., and Valentine fears that Dako (for Dakota) Farona may be blackmailing one of the political opponents.

This is a character driven story with a great plot, and readers will love the characters. The author keeps the story moving at an easy pace, never losing the reader, and keeping them turning the pages. An award winning television writer and creator, the author knows how to set the scenes so each play is clear in the reader’s mind, yet never suspecting the final end. It’s filled with drama, humor, and the required bumps on the head. For a great read, I highly recommend this to mystery lovers.  

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories

Murder: Take Three

When movie action hero Micah Deifenschlictor is accused of murdering his longtime agent, private investigators Maureen O'Brien and Blake Ervansky are offered a small fortune by Micah's attorney to prove her client's innocence. Blake and Maureen uncover evidence that eliminates Micah as a suspect in less than a day, earning the huge paycheck for very little work. When the case boomerangs back to them, however, the detectives realize they may have been duped into participating in a cover-up. After secretly reopening their investigation, Ervansky and O'Brien are drawn into something much larger and darker than mere homicide, something that will bring unimaginable grief to Blake's life, not only changing him as a man, but irrevocably altering his relationship with Maureen.

Murder: Take Three (Murder Mystery)

By April Kelly & Marsha Lyons

ISBN #978-0615555065

Flight Risk Books www.flightriskbooks.com

Price $10.72

304 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“Just Keeps Getting Better!”

Receiving a big paycheck for proving movie action hero Micah Deifenschlictor did not kill his agent, Blake and Maureen feel good about their investigation until things start looking funny about the case, and another man is arrested after clues lead to him. Now, they’re wondering if maybe the clues were planted, and they were supposed to find Micah innocent when in truth he was the killer.

Micah had served a tour in the Marines, and with a body-builder’s muscles was perfect for action parts, even if he couldn’t act. When he left the marines, he brought many of his old military buddies back with him, setting them up in his movies. But is Micah really in charge? Drugs are liquefying his brain, and he doesn’t seem to have the intelligence to plan a murder. Blake and Maureen start looking at his movie studio, where ex-marines are patrolling the grounds armed to the teeth. And when Pinnacle Studios notices their interest, Blake’s home is burned down and the suspected body of his wife is found in the ashes, sending Blake temporarily over the edge. Maureen remains on the case, however, and discovers that Blake’s wife may be alive, and the body was someone else.

Wow! This series just keeps getting better. The characters continue to grow, though the mood becomes a bit darker as Blake and Maureen are pulled deeper into the cases they investigate. There is little mystery to the stories, as the reader understands the set up from the beginning, but we get to see the main characters work out their investigation, discovering clues that will lead them to the guilty party, and this brings the reader closer to the characters involved. And it is the characters that make the series. The sleazy Hollywood setting is another plus. Highly recommended for mystery buffs who love a good yarn.

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories

Murder: Take Two

What has six legs, black stripes and kills people? A homicidal magician and the biggest tiger in his world-famous show. Murder will be hard to prove, though, because the dead guy never existed, all the evidence seems to have been eaten, and the victim’s corpse isn’t the only thing that has disappeared. When Maureen O’Brien suddenly vanishes, P.I. Blake Ervansky learns about her shocking former life, a past he doesn’t think he can live with. Then, before he can tell her their partnership is over, a call from a client in hysterics reveals that a recently solved case has come messily unsolved. Putting aside their own differences, Maureen and Blake circumvent a corrupt sheriff and draw closer to the truth, until Blake winds up in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse in which he’s the mouse, and the cat outweighs him by 400 pounds. It’s a cage match he won’t survive unless the skills Maureen learned in her dark past can neutralize the killer before Blake becomes cat chow.

Murder: Take Two (Murder Mystery)

By April Kelly & Marsha Lyons

Flight Risk Books

ISBN #978-0615645348

Price $14.95

396 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

"Fast-Paced, Easy Reading, With Fascinating Characters"

Ex police detectives Blake Ervansky & Maureen O’Brien are now working as private investigators at their E&O Investigations in Hollywood, when Maureen suddenly disappears. Her father tells Blake not to worry, she will be back, but can’t tell him where she is. Upon her return Blake learns that his partner was involved as an assassin with the CIA before coming to work in the BHPD, and this worries him. What is he doing working with a trained government assassin? But her background just might come in handy with their current assignment.  E&O is hired by a rich entertainer from Nevada to find her missing husband, who she suspects has been murdered by his magician partner.

Setting up camp is Madison, Nevada, where the magician has his compound with the caged tigers from his act, the investigators quickly learn that the killer has the sheriff and town in his pocket, and if they are going to prove their client’s husband was murdered, they will have to come up with a little magic of their own.

This is the second novel in the Ervansky & O’Brien series, and proves that the authors weren’t a one-hit wonder. This second novel, filled with intrigue and humor, takes up where the first novel left off. The prose is fast-paced, easy reading, with imaginative characters, and great plot. With no chapter breaks, it’s a reading marathon, as the reader hates to put the book down until the final page – and it’s almost 400 pages in length! The writing is humorous, while the dialogue is realistic, though the reader must keep in mind that this is Hollywood, where things might not be like they are elsewhere.  I got a real kick out of the scene where Maureen’s father breaks out in song with a waitress, like some Hollywood musical. Highly recommended for mystery fans, and any lover of entertainment.

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories

& Night To Dawn Magazine www.bloodredshadow.com

Murder In One Take

Det. Blake Ervansky is first on the scene when an Oscar-winning star is shot by his ex-lover. As lead cop on the case, Ervansky has everything he needs to put away Ali Garland: motive, weapon, videos of the murder and a dozen eyewitnesses, one of whom is his partner of less than 24 hours, Sgt. Maureen O’Brien. This is LA, the beating heart of show biz, though, so nothing is as it seems, even Ervansky’s new partner. Ali Garland appears to have been justified in defending herself with lethal force, but could this wide-eyed ingénue be the architect of an airtight double fake? Has she really pulled off the perfect murder? Ervansky and O’Brien will only unravel her skein of deceit when they turn to the same Hollywood magic that convinces audiences aliens can phone home, talking clown fish do search and rescue, and every hooker is just a nice girl waiting for the right millionaire.

April Kelly

Murder In One Take (Police Procedural)

By April Kelly & Marsha Lyons

Flight Risk Books

ISBN #978-0615645339

Price $12.95

324 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“You’ll really Not Want To Put This Book Down.”

Detective Blake Ervansky has just met his new partner, Sergeant Maureen O’Brien, and their first assignment together is to arrest a felon. But things quickly go haywire. Before they can reach the felon, a woman shoots and kills a man right in front of them. The victim is a popular actor, and the shooter, also an actress, was his lover. It looks like an open and shut case from the very beginning, and the reader knows who the killer is. Making the arrest, the woman tells them she thought the man was a stalker, mistaking her ex-lover for the stalker. All the clues point in that direction, but Sergeant O’Brien tells her partner the woman is lying. They can’t prove it, and the Grand Jury refuses to indict her. The father of the murder victim asks the governor to have Ervansky and O’Brien put on leave from the Beverly Hills Police Department, and into his employ to find the proof of guilt on the shooter.

Marsha Lyons

Although Detective Ervansky and Sergeant O’Brien are the main characters, there are many interesting side characters, well-drawn and fleshed out. There is a lot of good police work, some good guesses on the part of the investigators, and a bit of humor to keep the story from bogging down in too much dark seriousness that clutters so many mystery novels today. The writing is intelligent and excellently paced, the dialogue believable – and humorous. The copy I read was well edited.  There was one big problem, however, the novel had no chapters! I had to read the book in one setting, because I could never find a breaking point! Just kidding. This was a fun read, and I highly recommend it to all mystery lovers. You really may not want to put it down.

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories