Max Tomlinson's Blog, page 2

Goodreads Giveaway – Night Candy

Greetings, Readers!

From December 2 – December 15th, I am giving away 5 *autographed* hardcopies of Night Candy on Goodreads – US only. Enter now for a chance to win one. Good luck!

–> Night Candy Goodreads Giveaway

While you’re at it, you can pick up a Kindle copy of Night Candy for $1.99 (a special which runs all month). Enjoy and happy holidays!

–> Night Candy on Kindle for $1.99

Night Candy $1.99 Kindle Sale!

Greetings, readers! I do hope the holiday season is shaping up well for you and yours.

Oceanview Press has put my latest Colleen Hayes Novel – Night Candy – on sale for $1.99 as a Kindle download for the month of December.

Publishers Weekly says: “Tomlinson’s at his best in this fifth mystery featuring San Francisco PI Colleen Hayes (following 2022’s Line of Darkness).”

It’s 1979, and a serial killer known as Night Candy is striking sex workers in San Francisco. Meanwhile, Colleen’s ally at SFPD, Inspector Owens, has been arrested for the murder of his ex-wife. Is there a connection?

Check it out!

Publication Day: Night Candy

Happy Publication day to the fifth Colleen Hayes mystery – Night Candy!

“As the ‘70s draw to a close in San Francisco, things do not bode well for the city or Colleen Hayes. A stalker by the name of Night Candy is picking off sex workers, both male and female.

Then Colleen’s ally—SFPD Inspector Owens—is arrested for the murder of his ex-wife. But people are depending on Colleen: Owens, and a trio of working girls Colleen keeps her eye on—especially with Night Candy on the loose. 

Then one of the three women is next to disappear.

If anything is to test Colleen’s resolve, December 1979 seems to be it.”

Night Candy is already receiving positive reviews. Publishers Weekly had this to say: “Tomlinson is at his best in this fifth mystery featuring San Francisco PI Colleen Hayes.” 

You can check out Night Candy here: Oceanview Publishing – Night Candy

Read the PW review here.

Oceanview is also running a freebie for those not familiar with Colleen Hayes. For the rest of the month, Vanishing in the Haight, Colleen #1, is free as an ebook download. Follow the link below and click “ebook”

https://www.oceanviewpub.com/books/vanishing-in-the-haight

Thanks for all your support and interest. You are the reason I do this. 

Preorder/buy Night Candy at Oceanview.

¡vivan los lectores!

Publishers Weekly Review for Night Candy

Publishers Weekly review for Night Candy, the upcoming Colleen Hayes mystery, available 7/23/2023. Thank you, Publishers Weekly!

“Tomlinson’s at his best in this fifth mystery featuring San Francisco PI Colleen Hayes (following 2022’s Line of Darkness). It’s 1979, and a serial killer known as Night Candy, who has murdered at least three San Francisco sex workers and posed them in positions that mimic crucifixion, may have killed again after a three-month break—or a copycat might be on the prowl. Hayes, who’s concerned that the police aren’t giving sex workers adequate protection, sets out to stop the bloodshed herself. She’s also working another case with a personal connection: SFPD Insp. Edmund Owens, a friend, has been arrested on suspicion of murdering his ex-wife after a fire in their vacation cabin led to the discovery of her body and the bullet wound in her head. The assignment of an officer to the case who’s hostile to Owens raises the stakes for Hayes, who believes the inspector is innocent. Tomlinson ably juggles the two high-tension plotlines and doesn’t sacrifice characterization for cheap twists. Fans of Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone series will be satisfied.”

Read the PW review here.

Preorder/buy Night Candy at Oceanview.

Hunters in the Dark – Book Review

“One can feel a human heart from a great distance; the hunter feels his prey even in a great darkness.”

A British drifter wandering Southeast Asia who is down to his last few dollars manages to win $2000 in a seedy border casino in Cambodia. The win is a fortune to the locals. And people take notice—the wrong people. What should have been a windfall changes Robert Grieve’s life for the worse. And what transpires is a harrowing journey through a country that harbors a schizophrenic personality: one with the gentle, spiritual nature of Buddhism on one side and the gruesome memory of “Year 0” on the other, in which Cambodia’s genocide was unleashed by the Khmer Rouge in the ‘70s, and a third of the country perished in its killing fields. Those who did the killing are still alive and well. I visited Cambodia in 2018 and our guide, a younger man who grew up on the streets of Phnom Penh, told us that if you see anyone over 50 in Cambodia, they were likely the ones who did the indiscriminate killing as teenagers. And there are plenty of them. A sobering thought indeed.

Hunters in the Dark is the perfect suspense novel IMO—one that works just fine as an international mystery but also has the depth of a literary novel. The writing is strong, and the author obviously knows his subject as we travel the exotic places that most tourists won’t ever see. But we are also witness to the damaged psyches of those—good and bad—who survived Year 0. It’s a compelling and dark novel with a satisfying twist at the end. I’m looking forward to more books by Lawrence Osborne.

Line of Darkness release day

Happy release day to “Line of Darkness”, the 4th Colleen Hayes mystery.

Line of Darkness has already received very positive reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist.

I hope you like it just as much.

(Click cover to see book at Oceanview Press)

“When a German businesswoman on assignment in 1979 San Francisco hires Colleen Hayes to find her missing nephew, supposedly in town to visit, Colleen assumes it’s a straightforward job. She can certainly use the money. Her unmarried daughter is pregnant and the bills are piling up.

But when the “nephew” turns out to be a Holocaust survivor connected to an international vigilante group hunting down ex-Nazis, and the body of a mysterious woman is found on San Francisco’s Municipal Railway, mirroring a murder committed the week before in Buenos Aires where the nephew has just flown in from, Colleen realizes she better take another look at who’s pulling the strings.

Colleen’s search uncovers a World War II banknote and the 1942 SS ID of a German officer long since unaccounted for. Then her office is broken into by members of Aryan Alliance, a local neo-Nazi group. When Colleen fails to heed their warning her daughter is attacked.  

The so-called nephew is nowhere to be found. The German businesswoman has fled town.

Colleen smells a rat, one that leads her to Italy where the infamous Vatican Ratlines helped escaped ex-Nazis forge new identities around the globe. She discovers a secret project hatched in a concentration camp and has no choice but to finish her search if she wants to stop the killing and put this business behind her and her daughter.” 

You can see more or order the book here.

Booklist Review for Line of Darkness

Thank you, Booklist, for the wonderful review for Line of Darkness!

(Click cover to see book at Oceanview Press)

“Unlicensed San Francisco PI Colleen Hayes is a convicted felon with a keen sense of justice. She finally has an office and an apartment. She has reconnected with her daughter, Pamela, who is pregnant, and she is working on a relationship with boyfriend Dwight, an SFPD detective. When Ingrid Richter, a German bank executive in town for a conference, asks Colleen to locate
her nephew, Erich Hahn, and pays handsomely up front, she can’t say no. The case seems straightforward, and Colleen has no trouble tracking Erich to a seedy hotel south of Market Street;
then things change fast. It seems that Erich Hahn is an alias for an operative in Black Cross, a group of Nazi hunters seeking revenge for war crimes. A white-supremacy gang is chasing Black Cross, and the trail leads to Rome and the Vatican. Colleen no longer knows whom to trust and hopes to survive while trying to solve the puzzle. This action-packed, intricately plotted story, starring a strong, independent sleuth, is a real page-turner.” (See Review at Booklist)

Coming next summer – 2023

I am excited to announce Colleen Hayes #5 – Night Candy – out next summer. The folks at Oceanview have done a terrific job on the cover IMO. Stay tuned!

As the ‘ 70s draw to a close in San Francisco, things do not bode well for the city— or for ex-con PI Colleen Hayes, whose daughter Pam, in a tragic turn of events, has lost her baby. Pam leaves San Francisco and Colleen, who moved there to reunite with her, starts to wonder what she’ s doing in the Bay Area.

Meanwhile, a serial killer given the name “ Night Candy” is targeting sex workers, both male and female. The situation doesn’ t improve when Colleen’ s friend and ally— SFPD Inspector Owens— is arrested for the murder of his ex-wife, who was found burned in a fire the same night the pair had tried to rekindle their love. Could Owens have really done what they say? Even Colleen has her doubts.

But there are people depending on her: Owens, who needs help finding his ex-wife’s real killer, and a trio of sex workers Colleen keeps her eye on— especially with Night Candy on the loose. Then, one of the three girls is next to disappear. If anything is to test Colleen’ s resolve, December 1979 seems to be it.

Perfect for fans of Steve Berry and Harlan Coben

Publishers Weekly Review for Line of Darkness

Check out Publishers Weekly’s very positive review for the upcoming Colleen Hayes mystery – Line of Darkness – set in 1979 San Francisco. Thank you, Publishers Weekly!

Line of Darkness releases August 16, 2022 and is available for preorder.

“Set in 1979 San Francisco, Tomlinson’s impressive fourth mystery featuring unlicensed PI and ex-con Colleen Hayes (after 2021’s Bad Scene) hands his plausibly imperfect lead a well-heeled client. Ingrid Richter, a v-p at a Swiss bank who’s in town for a conference, hires Hayes to find her 42-year-old nephew, Erich Hahn. Hahn, who is “what they call ‘manic-depressive,’ ” called his aunt from the airport when he arrived in the city, but never showed for a planned dinner. Hayes manages to track Hahn to a seedy hotel, where she breaks into his room, only to discover a gun and an envelope containing “a Nazi ID card that appeared to be vintage.” The gun and ID card make her suspicious of her client and question Richter’s real motives for wanting her purported nephew found. Hayes later learns that Hahn flew to San Francisco from Buenos Aires, where a German ex-pat was murdered at the time he was there. More surprises follow en route to the satisfying climax. Fans of feisty, flawed leads will want to see more of Hayes.”

PW review here.

Five Words

The Right to Remain Silent: five words that changed arrest procedure.

I recently had the opportunity to visit Phoenix Police Museum (highly recommended!) and was fortunate enough to meet a retired detective whose 1963 arrest changed the course of arrest procedure in America and the world over.

In March 1963, Detective Carroll Cooley, a one year PPD veteran at the time, brought Ernesto Miranda into the the station for a lineup and questioning regarding an 18-year-old movie cashier who had been walking home late one night and was raped and robbed of four dollars. Miranda was identified by the victim, confessed, even identifying the victim himself (“She’s the one”) and wrote a confession. An open and shut case. Not quite. Three years later the supreme court ruled that Miranda had not been told he’d had the right to remain silent and also the right to a lawyer, something not typically done at the time. This led to the famous Miranda warning we take for granted.

Ernesto Miranda was found guilty on another rape charge as well as a robbery charge and served time in prison until he was paroled in 1972. He was killed a few years later in a bar fight over a card game involving a few dollars.

Ernesto Miranda would sell signed Miranda warning cards for $1.50. Ernesto Miranda is no. 1 in the lineup – a position he requested. He allegedly boasted about the crime to his cell mates and signed a confession – without a lawyer present.I had the opportunity to meet retired detective Carroll Cooley who arrested Ernesto Miranda in 1963.