Available in English ~ Spanish ~ and German, Click the Author Link for available versions #1 International Bestseller in FIVE categories in the US and AU. Including Forensics Biographies & Memoirs, Criminal Law Evidence, and Forensic Science in the US. Reference & Collections Biographies, and Historical Biographies & Memoirs in AU. Cold Case is the first in a three-book series following the real-life career of Brad Schlerf, a perceptive and witty detective from Florida whose whole life has been dedicated to community and service.
As Brad’s detective career in Junction City, Kansas unfolds, so do the Cold Cases featured in this book. Join him on his journey that spans over 20 years to work through the crimes of one criminal family.
A nail-biting emotional rollercoaster with an immersive writing style that will leave you needing to know how it all ends, Cold Case explores the trauma of death and the anguish of cases going cold. Leads for the case can be found in the most unexpected places, and sometimes come from nowhere. Rest assured we will solve these crimes, and we are taking you, the reader, with us as it all unfolds.
All of the crimes in this book are true cases. The characters' names have been changed to protect the officers' private lives and to refuse any undeserved notoriety for the criminals involved.
This book is special to me in a way that I know the author personally. We were co-workers at the same police department. As I started to read, the descriptions he gave about my hometown brought me right back there. (I grew up there but moved to another State in 2005.) So when he mentions one of his first calls to a trailer park on Grant Ave., I can see it and know exactly where he’s talking about. This was a fast read for me. I could not put it down. Since Brad moved on to another agency, I was not aware of all the cases that intertwined. So to say the ending was a shocker…OMG!! I can’t wait for the next one.
Gotcha Cold Case is one of those books that slowly draws you into its pages. I found myself caught up within the mystery quite easily which meant that I had a hard time setting this chunkster down. My wrists were sore from holding the book by the end but it was definitely worth it. This book was on my radar even before I heard that it is based on true cases the author has gone through in his lifetime.
I think that the question that is present throughout most of the book of whether a crime has really taken place or not made this book that much better for me. Even the fact that I already knew these are true crimes, did not stop me from gasping with every turn of page. Brad Schlerf’s attention to details builds the atmosphere and storyline in a way that just draws the reader in.
While the book slowly swept me into it, it was the characters that really made this book a great read. I loved Brad’s character from almost the very beginning of this book. Into every crime fiction reader's life something like Gotcha Cold Case should sneak. Quietly delivered to the front door, unheralded that should make you sit up and pay attention, decorated with a nicely atmospheric cover, with a blurb that doesn't quite telegraph exactly what is about to happen.
Overall, this is very likely going on my top reads list for the year! I just really enjoyed my entire reading experience and was sad to see the book end. The only bright spot is hoping that the second book must be already in works so that I don't have a long wait for book two. I'm eager to see what other kinds of trouble that Brad can get himself into. This was a great beginning to a new mystery series that I cannot wait to read more of! Bring on more Cold Cases!
Gotcha Cold Case by Brad Schlerf is a wonderful book inspired from real true stories, true crime cases that the author and his companion were assigned to solve. Must read for all that like this genre.