You're Dead

Organizational psychologist Dr. Waters is a happily solitary guy with a few deep attachments, including to his boss Paresh Rajput, the owner of a thriving hi-tech aerospace company. Until something really bad happens to CEO Rajput, which throws Waters into a lunatic swirl of murderous stalkers, corporate intrigue, amorous female executives and crafty cops who see the inscrutable psychologist as murder suspect #1. Waters is hardly defenseless. A weight-lifter and former wrestler, ace poker player and master student of human nature, he takes it all on with surprising strength and determination. If they only knew. As with the connivers surrounding him, Waters has his own secrets. Autistic as a child, he lives with the consequences some blessings, others a curse. And a love affair that's hidden even more deeply, or so he thinks. You're Dead is a mystery/thriller, an adventure story, though in the context of the present zeitgeist the financial stakes of hi-tech ascendancy and flourishing commerce, corporate and personal venality, manipulations by the rich and powerful men and women and the ugly presence of base criminality that crackles around the fringes. It's about troubled and troubling minds, and institutions that struggle to assert relevance, but also how one man, single-minded and apart, can disrupt what the lead detective on the case calls, "Their clever-clever ways." Every writer has their themes and pre-occupations. For Knopf, it's the intricacies of the mind, the most complex organism in the universe. The aberrations, as well as the indefinable "normal". You're Dead is an action-filled examination of what happens when minds of all kinds collide.

You’re Dead (Mystery Thriller)

By Chris Knopf

The Permanent Press www.thepermanentpress.com

ISBN #978-1579625665

Price $29.95 (Hardback)

Price $9.95 (Kindle)

Rating 4-Stars

Dr. Waters discovers the bodiless head of his boss when he goes home. He becomes the first suspect, and decides he needs to find the real killer before he’s arrested for the murder. The case becomes a fantastical investigation, as only the author can pen them, and would have been a first rate detective novel.

I’ve never cared for the author’s dialogue, but his fiction is certainly topnotch, if not a little beyond belief, but that’s why we read - to escape reality for a few hours in an action-packed mystery with beautiful women and hard men. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of NINA FONTAYNE

Tango Down

A routine visit to one of Sam Acquillo's job sites becomes anything but. The home's owner, Victor Bollings, is lying in a pool of blood, the back of his head bashed in. One of Sam's closest friends in the cabinetry trade is quickly behind bars as the obvious suspect. For the cops, this is all standard operating procedure. But as it turns out, nothing about the case is routine, obvious or standard in any way.

Sam and defense attorney Jackie Swaitkowski are used to an uneasy, though often reciprocal, relationship with law enforcement. But when the chief of police tells Sam to stay the hell away, this time he really means it. For Sam and Jackie, words like this are highly motivational, until strange new forces emerge from the shadows. Forces from well beyond the borders of Southampton, from worlds as sinister as they are unfathomable.

That doesn't mean Sam and Jackie still don t have a job to do. And a responsibility to defend the utterly defenseless: a Colombian immigrant with no legal status, no political power and no alibi, with the full weight of the judicial system local, state, national and international arrayed against him.

The eighth edition of the Sam Acquillo Mystery Series disrupts the illusion that the Hamptons are safely immune from the struggles that enflame much of the world. It s an examination of how fear of the unknown ignites prejudice and hate, overturning norms of decency and principle.

For Sam and Jackie, it's also a lesson in the interconnectedness of evil.

Tango Down (Murder Mystery)

By Chris Knopf

The Permanent Press www.thepermanentpress.com

ISBN #978-1579625016

288 Pages

Price $29.00 (Hardback)

Rating 4-Stars

When a friend of Sam Acquillo, a Columbian immigrant, is arrested for murder, and Sam is told to stay out of the case it could be disastrous for him to intercede in the situation. But when more factors enter the already touchy case, Sam decides to take a hand in unraveling the mystery and solving the murder.

The plot centers around undocumented workers falsely accused of crimes they didn’t commit, giving honest workers from South of the Border a bad name. I found this comical in the reality of the crimes many undocumented workers do commit, while straining our educational and medical systems. But it is fodder for good fictional crime novels. The author is a good writer, and this is a good mystery for the fan. Although I’ve never cared much for his dialog, his plots are certainly topnotch. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of THE MAN IN THE BLACK FEDORA

Cop Job

Cop Job (Murder Mystery)

By Chris Knopf

The Permanent Press www.thepermanentpress.com

ISBN #978-1579623937

Price $29.00

288 Pages

Rating 4-Stars

“Good Mystery, Well Written, But Slow.”

Alfie Aldergreen, confined to a wheelchair, is found floating in the bay with his hands strapped to the chair. He was an Army veteran suffering from PSTD, and delusional. Why would anyone kill him? Sam Acquillo and Jackie Swaitkowski, two of his friends, are asked by the police chief to find out what they can about the murder. It seems that the victim was a police informer, and he wasn’t the only police informer murdered recently.  Then the DA calls them in. She believes there may be bad cops involved. 

The case has twists and turns, with enough suspects to fill an Army platoon, and strangely there is an Army connection hidden somewhere deep in the mystery, but what does that mean?

This well-written mystery novel kept my interest throughout, though the action was infernally slow. Oh, there was a bit of a wrestling match in the first 100 pages, then a short battle on a boat at the end of the story. It’s definitely character driven, with a well worked out plot.  I was able to stay with the story to the end, though at times I wanted to toss the book in the trash. Besides being slow, the dialogue left me cold. I cannot believe men and women throw the “f” word about in ever-day normal conversation, and in mixed company, as if it goes on everywhere. Made me wonder if there is a quota for the “f” word now. For me, it made the characters appear unrealistic, and left me wishing I hadn’t read the book.  Mystery lovers who can accept the unbelievable dialogue will love the mystery, however.

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories