Tom Reed and Walt Sydowski

Series · 5 books · 2000-2004

By Rick Mofina

Books in series

If Angels Fall

2000

NOTE: Before reviewing this book, please know that formatting issues and revisions concerning an outdated edition have been addressed. Pointing them out now no longer applies to the current edition. Tom Reed is a crime reporter with The San Francisco Star, whose superb journalistic skills earned him a Pulitzer nomination. But years later Reed’s life is coming apart. His editor wants him fired. His wife has left him to wrestle with his demons. Alone, Reed is tormented by the fear he may have caused the suicide of an innocent man suspected of murdering a two-year-old girl. Reed’s friend on the case is legendary San Francisco Homicide Inspector, Walt Sydowski, who has one of California’s highest clearance rates. He is also a lonely widower haunted by the fact he cannot solve the girl's heartbreaking death. Both men grapple with the past while they race the clock to learn the truth behind a several new abductions that have anguished the Bay Area, in this acclaimed thriller set in the late 1990s.

Cold Fear

2001

In the remote, rugged corner of Montana’s Glacier National Park known as the Devil’s Grasp, little Paige Baker of San Francisco disappears with her dog, Kobee, while on a camping trip with her family; or so her mother and father have told authorities. A multi-agency task force launches a massive search as Paige fights to survive in the wilderness. Time hammers against her and soon the nation is gripped by the life-and-death drama. Secretly, behind the scenes, the FBI grows suspicious of Paige’s parents. Their recent history and disturbing evidence links them to a horrible secret from the past.

Blood of Others

2002

The disappearance and murder of a lonely San Francisco insurance clerk puts a relentless crime reporter and legendary homicide cop on separate tracks in their pursuit of a killer. The suspect lures solitary women out of their quiet worlds and into his nightmare as he races the clock and travels the globe searching for the one woman who will forgive the unforgivable. In the course of a widening investigation, Olivia Grant, a shy gift store sales manager who aches to escape her painful solitude, meets Ben Wyatt, an outcast San Francisco cop on the case, Wyatt is a man gripped with self-doubt over the shooting of his former partner. Blood of Others is a study of loneliness and human frailties; a story steeped in terrifying suspense that threatens to destroy the lives of those drawn into it as it rockets to a heart-pounding conclusion.

No Way Back

2003

San Francisco crime reporter Tom Reed is burned out. On the day he decides to finally quit the news business, a sensational story breaks. A heart-stopping robbery-homicide at a jewelry store. The suspects have shot and killed a police officer before fleeing with a female hostage. Reed rushes to the scene, his passion resurrected for one last big story. Arriving at the chaos, Reed is stunned to learn from a staff member, still clutching a receipt, that the hostage is his wife, Ann Reed. Horrified, Reed confronts San Francisco Homicide Inspector Walt Sydowski and other detectives on the case. All know the odds. Reed is paralyzed with anguish, but his son, Zach, refuses to give up hope of finding his mother, despite the grisly trail left by the killers. Now the clock is ticking down as Reed battles his demons and Sydowski in a life and death search for Ann.

Be Mine

2004

During his years as a crime reporter in San Francisco, Tom Reed had seen a lot of sick messages, but the one just delivered to his fellow reporter Molly Wilson is different—it's shockingly personal, written in human blood. SFPD Homicide Inspector, Walt Sydowski, has grappled with horrific cases but the one confronting him now is unlike anything he's ever faced—the murder of a fellow detective. As Sydowski works on his most challenging case Tom races to save his career, and Molly. Be Mine is a study in psychological suspense that takes the reader on an unrelenting nail-biting journey into the darkest regions of the SFPD Homicide Detail, The San Francisco Star newsroom and a tormented human heart.

Author

Rick Mofina

Author · 44 books

Rick Mofina is a former journalist who has interviewed murderers on death row in Montana and Texas, flown over L.A. with the LAPD and patrolled with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police near the Arctic. He's also reported from the Caribbean, Africa and Kuwait's border with Iraq. His true-crime freelance work has appeared in The New York Times, The Telegraph (London, U.K.), Reader’s Digest, Penthouse, Marie Claire and The South China Morning Post, (Hong Kong). He has written more than 20 crime fiction thrillers that have been published in nearly 30 countries. His work has been praised by James Patterson, Dean Koontz, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen, Jeffery Deaver, Louise Penny, Sandra Brown, James Rollins, Lisa Unger, Brad Thor, Nick Stone, David Morrell, Allison Brennan, Heather Graham, Linwood Barclay, Peter Robinson, Håkan Nesser and Kay Hooper. The Crime Writers of Canada, The International Thriller Writers and The Private Eye Writers of America have listed his titles among the best in crime fiction. As a two-time winner of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award, a four-time Thriller Award finalist and a two-time Shamus Award finalist, the Library Journal calls him, “One of the best thriller writers in the business.” Series: * Tom Reed and Walt Sydowski * Jason Wade * Jack Gannon Awards: Arthur Ellis Award ◊ Best Novel (2003): Blood of Others