The Not So Merry Adventures of Max Creed by Matt Cost

They tell us, sir, to not chase trends in the writing business. But often something pops my writing impulses from the headlines, and I engage. I dig in. I explore and research and learn. And then the words appear on the screen, the printer spits them out, and we have the makings of a book.

Two years ago, I wrote The Not So Merry Adventures of Max Creed about a billionaire playboy who has political aspirations, perhaps inclined in that direction from powerful forces beyond his knowledge. It publishes in April and is the beginning of a new series with a new publisher.

  Max Creed is a fictional person created to bring justice to those wronged by the ultra-wealthy in a world where the law overwhelmingly favors those with money and power. He is bound only by the laws of humanity and not those of the legal system.

When Sevyn Knight hires Max Creed and his disciples to right the wrongs done to her father at the hands of billionaire playboy, Rupert Hastings, the game is afoot. Creed must enmesh himself into the world of the immoral tycoon in order to destroy him, but the temptations of sin and the allure of the pleasures of the rich and famous tease the very fabric of his being.

Aided by his business manager, John Little, the former assassin, Scarlett, the tech wizard Scads, the attorney, Marian, and the financial guru, Tucker, Creed races against time to stop Hastings from becoming all powerful as murky figures appear on the darkest edges of his fiefdom.

The original Merry Men

A breathless thrill ride that will keep your heart pounding long after the last page is turned.

The brilliant and talented Jule Selbo on The Not So Merry Adventures of Max Creed:

“The author weaves a slippery spiderweb of clues and connections for Creed as he plays an assumed role within a vast and dangerous criminal empire. Readers will root for Creed, for he refuses to accept that there is one set of laws for the ordinary people and another set for the ultra-rich scions of industry. The battle is on and it’s good one – the pace and action in this book is intense. By the final pages, readers will be eagerly awaiting the next in the series.”

The fact of the matter is that it takes time from typing the first sentence of a new book to publication date. I write diligently and will finish the first draft of a book in four months, but then take a couple of months to edit. I recently submitted a new book, 1955, the start of another series, to Level Best Books. It took five months to get accepted, even though I am an established author with them now. I have been told it might sneak into publication at the end of 2026, or maybe 2027.

The timeline on this is four months to write, two months to edit, five months to get accepted, and twenty-four months to publication. All in all, from the beginning of the book to its publication date is three years (give or take a month). This series has less complications due to the length of time because it is a historical fiction PI mystery set in 1955. There are not many changes to the events of seventy years ago, unlike writing contemporary thrillers.

In The Not So Merry Adventures of Max Creed, Max Creed and his band of not so merry people will fight a crusade to fight evil and worse from seizing power in a world determined by the super wealthy. The beauty of Max is that he is not forced to play by any set of rules. He will give the justice system their chance to set things right, but if they prove incapable, he will take matters into his own hands.

Sometimes, breaking the law is the only way to achieve justice. Do you agree?

About the Author

Matt Cost was a history major at Trinity College. He owned a mystery bookstore, a video store, and a gym, before serving a ten-year sentence as a junior high school teacher. In 2014 he was released and began writing. And that’s what he does. He writes histories and mysteries.

Cost has published six books in the Mainely Mystery series, starting with Mainely Power. He has also published five books in the Clay Wolfe Trap series, starting with Wolfe Trap. And finally, there are two books in the Brooklyn 8 Ballo series, starting with Velma Gone Awry. For historical novels, Cost has published At Every Hazard and its sequel, Love in a Time of Hate, as well as I am Cuba. The Not So Merry Adventures of Max Creed is his 17th published book.

Cost now lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Harper. There are four grown children: Brittany, Pearson, Miranda, and Ryan. They have been replaced in the home with four dogs. Cost now spends his days at the computer, writing.