Area 51 Murders

A Jim Richards Murder Mystery #14

by Bob Moats

When a man is found dead on the property of the infamous Area 51, the wife comes to Jim Richards to find his killer. Jim takes the case and along with his friend Buck they go to Area 51 to find mysteries on every turn of the case. The killer doesn’t like private eyes snooping around the top secret base and Jim has to resort to dangerous subterfuge while he’s on the base to find the killer. Is the death related to the top secret goings on in Area 51? Is there a cover up involving little green men, or just terrestrial beings ready to kill? Will this case lead to the destruction of Las Vegas by a terrorist bent on killing everyone in Sin City with a new Area 51 virus. Can Jim & Buck stop him in time? On the side, Trapper goes off to find the missing brother of his lady friend, Sam the bookie and ex-hooker. Can Trapper find the brother or will he find something far more dangerous. All in a days work for the Richards investigating firm in this 14th book of the Jim Richards murder novels.

218 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 27, 2010

About the author

Detroit area resident, Bob Moats, has been writing short stories and plays for as long as he can remember. He has lost most of his original stories, typed or handwritten, in the numerous moves he has made from his hometown of Fraser, Michigan to Northern Michigan, to Las Vegas and back to Fraser, where he now lives. He also wrote the short fantasy novella "Crystal Prison of Kyr" and is a published playwright with his three act comedy "Happily Ever After".

Moats became one of the causalities of unemployment early in 2009, and had time on his hands to finally pursue a life long dream of writing a full blown crime novel. Thus was born the first book, "Classmate Murders".

What followed was a series of 20 books starting with "The Classmate Murders" which introduces the main character, Jim Richards, who has to admit he has become a senior citizen, reluctantly. Richards, one day, receives an email from a childhood sweetheart asking for his help, but by the time he reaches her, she has been murdered. His life turns around and he is pulled into numerous murders of women from his high school who he hasn't seen in forty years. Along with a friend of his, Buck, a big, mustached biker, they go off to track down the killer before he can get to one former classmate, Penny Wickens, a TV talk show host who Jim has just fallen for while protecting her. The killer is also murdering the women right out from under police protection, driving homicide detective Will Trapper crazy, and he slowly depends on Jim to help. There's humor, suspense, wild chases across suburban Detroit with cops, classic cars and motorcycle clubs; murder, mayhem, a good amount of romance and a twist ending.

Bob recently started a new series, the Fatal series. The first book "Fatal Rejection" is about serial killers, an author and the editors that the author wants to murder. The second book "Fatal Departure" follows the first with a new serial killer stalking the principal characters, Sarah and Dave. A third book is now in the works, "Fatal Romance" about a killer using companion ads to find his prey.

Reviews

[Lute Mullenix]

These are easy reading but pretty well written mystery novels. I enjoy reading one of them now and again.