Part of Series
Nominated for 2019 Shamus Award, Best Original Private Eye Paperback Cape Cod has become the world’s hotspot for the Great White shark. In growing numbers, scores of the fearsome predators patrol local waters to hunt for their favorite prey among the crowded seal colonies. But, unlike JAWS, where a shark terrorized an island community, the beasts that have flocked to the shores of the world-renowned summer resort have been good for business. The spotter planes, shark warning pennants, beach closings, and occasional seal kills have created an air of excitement rather than fear. At least, that is, until Kirk Munson is found dead in Cape Cod Bay, and the suspected killer is a Great White named Emma. Part-time P.I. Aristotle “Soc” Socarides has been too busy trying to keep his charter fishing business afloat while attempting to avert a family crisis to pay much attention to all the shark fuss. But when he and his faithful old pickup truck become collateral damage in what should have been a routine oyster poaching case, he takes Munson’s place steering a boat for a film crew shooting a movie based on the legend of the reputed witch, Goody Hallett, and the notorious pirate, Sam Bellamy. As if things aren’t complicated enough, an old flame wants Soc to prove Emma is innocent. And a fading movie star Soc has admired for years requests his help dealing with a gang of murderous thugs acting under the orders of an international war criminal. It doesn’t take long for Soc to find himself swimming in dangerous waters, where he learns the hard way that the most dangerous ‘sharks’ are the two-legged species.
Author
My fiction-writing career owes it start to the bad navigation of an 18th century pirate. For it was in 1717 that a ship, the Whydah went aground, reportedly carrying a fabulous treasure. In the 1980s, three salvage groups went head-to-head, competing to find the wreck. The controversy over the salvage got hot at times and I thought there might be a book in their story. I was working for a newspaper at the time. I developed my own detective, an ex-cop, diver, fisherman, and PI named Aristotle “Soc” Socarides. He was more philosophical than hard-boiled. Making his first appearance in “Cool Blue Tomb,” the book won the Shamus award for Best Paperback novel. After many years in the newspaper business, I turned to writing fiction and churned out five more books in the series. Clive Cussler blurbed: “There can be no better mystery writer in America than Paul Kemprecos.” Despite the accolades, the Soc series lingered in mid-list hell. By the time I finished my last book, I was thinking about another career that might make me more money, like working in a 7-11. Several months after the release of “Bluefin Blues,” Clive called and said a spin-off from the Dirk Pitt series was in the works. It would be called the NUMA Files and he wondered if I would be interested in tackling the job. I took on the writing of “Serpent” which brought into being Kurt Austin and the NUMA Special Assignments Team. Austin had some carry-over from Soc, and another team member, Paul Trout, had been born on Cape Cod. The book made The New York Times bestseller list, as did every one of seven NUMA Files that followed, including “Polar Shift,” which bumped “The DaVinci Code” for first place. After eight NUMA Files I went back to writing solo. I wrote an adventure book entitled, The Emerald Scepter, which introduced a new hero, Matinicus “Matt” Hawkins. I have been working on the re-release of my Soc series in digital and print, and in 2013, responding to numerous requests, I brought Soc back again in a seventh Socarides book entitled, Grey Lady. My wife Christi and I live on Cape Cod where she works as a financial advisor. We live in a circa 1865 farmhouse with two cats. We have three children and seven granddaughters. To learn more about Paul Kemprecos, check out his website at http://www.paulkemprecos.com.
