Part of Series
“Do you remember Halloweens when you were a kid? Every year from about the age of five until you stopped trick-or-treating, the same thing. “Ghost? Hobo? Even Superman? You wouldn’t think of anything else. Always, you had to be a policeman.” Roughly a month after going head-to-head with the copycat killer who had singled Detective Reed Mattox and his K-9 partner Billie out in an attempt to capitalize on their recent success, the duo is still reeling. Faced with uncertainty over where they are and what they are doing for the first time since partnering together years before, they retreat home to Oklahoma for the holidays to regroup. A vacation that is at once cathartic and therapeutic, right up until the moment Columbus Police Chief Eleanor Brandt calls informing them they are needed back in Ohio for a case. Judge Warren Steele has been a fixture in the Dayton legal community for almost thirty years. Fast approaching his seventieth birthday and the final days of his tenure on the bench, he is murdered outside of his home, his body left dressed up as a snowman on the front lawn of the very courthouse he has presided over for the past three decades. A brutal public display that is only the beginning as Reed and Billie are pressed back into action. Forced to unravel secrets in the city going back years, their hunt takes them through the local police departments, churches, courthouses, and even universities, all in the name of deciphering the motivation of their newest target. “Sometimes all you need is to be reminded why you fell in love with something in the first place...”
Author
I originally hail from the midwest, growing up in the heart of farm country, and still consider it, along with West Tennessee, my co-home. Between the two, I have a firm belief that football is the greatest of all past-times, sweet tea is really the only acceptable beverage for any occasion, there is not an event on earth that either gym shorts or boots can't be worn to, and that Dairy Queen is the best restaurant on the planet. Further, southern accents are a highly likeable feature on most everybody, English bulldogs sit atop the critter hierarchy, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with a Saturday night spent catfishing at the lake. Since leaving the midwest I've been to college in New England, grad school in the Rockies, and lived in over a dozen different cities ranging from DC to Honolulu along the way. Each and every one of these experiences has shaped who I am at this point, a fact I hope is expressed in my writing. I have developed enormous affinity for locales and people of every size and shape, and even if I never figure out a way to properly convey them on paper, I am very much grateful for their presence in my life. To sum it up, I asked a very good friend recently how they would describe me for something like this. Their response: "Plagued by realism and trained by experiences/education to be a pessimist, you somehow remain above all else an active dreamer." While I can't say those are the exact words I would choose, I can't say they're wrong. I travel, live in different places, try new foods, meet all kinds of different people, and above all else stay curious to a fault. Here's hoping it continues to provide us all with some pretty good stories...
