Matt > Recent Status Updates

When Cal and his partner, Nick, work to help a man who is being blackmailed, they think that this might be another winning case. However, a new client comes in to explain that his children are missing in Hong Kong. Cal takes the case and learns that the 19 y/o daughter left on a trip and disappeared, which led to the brother going looking for her. Cal agrees to head to Asia and pokes around, learning much about her!

Twenty-five years ago, Paul Adams found himself in the middle of a police investigation for murder, but was let off when someone else confessed. He fled the town and has not been back since. However, when his mother takes a fall, Paul comes to help, allowing the memories to flood back. He recollects the friends he had in school and some of their oddities. As a child is killed in the town, whispers emerge! Onwards!

Nick Ballard's past as a television psychic has left him slightly bitter with the world (and others within the profession). When he has an odd premonition about a murder in London, he tentatively reaches out to the Met. DCI Kate Garvey interviews him and discovers that he embodied the victim during the act, which might be helpful in cracking open the case. A eerie reference to Scripture is left at the scene. Onwards!

When some human remains are discovered in a Berkeley park, Clay Edison is called to the scene. One of the local coroners, Edison is not entirely sure what's he's discovered, only that the remains are that of an infant. With a newborn air home, this hits him hard, though he does his best to divorce himself from it. The search for a next of kin leads Edison to a prison, where the father plays dumb to the news.

While she may be in charge of overseeing all the threats to the country, Kate Buchanan has worries of her own. When she chooses to ‘edit’ some of the possible threats, she begins to wonder what might happen to her. Choosing to target someone from her past for more information about the administration, Kate finds her plan backfires. Now, she must wonder if the Loyalist Party America is as great as first posited.

America has gone forward with its plan to build The Wall. Under the Loyalist Party, the country has created a barrier to keep others out while also blocking outside internet and other influences. There has been a suspension of democratic elections until the ‘time is right’. Within the country, there are those who feel it’s time for a change, beginning with changes at the top. The Wall may not be as great as presumed.

After an attack takes place at his church, Marcus Ryker feels that this is more than an American race-based crime. He brings his concerns to the president in his new capacity with the CIA, only to be told to stand down. Meanwhile, plans are in place for a major strike around the time of a new American peace plan, one that could leave several world leaders dead. As the heat rises, the world remains oblivious. Onwards!

Returning for yet another thriller, Scot Harvath has much on his mind. With the murder of his friend, he’s out to find the killer and exact some justice. However, news emerges that someone’s put a massive bounty on his head, open to anyone who is gutsy enough to complete the task. While Harvath travels to Europe to make sense of it all, he encounters a woman with much grit and determination. Something’s off here...

A group of British schoolboys find themselves stuck on an island with little to do but hope for the best. While there will have to be a leader, this is only one of many tireless choices that must be made to keep the boys alive. With a hierarchy developing, thee boys find themselves forced to make life-altering decisions to stay alive, as they wait for a rescuer. The island is plentiful, but so are the points of view.

The El Camino murder from 1978 gets renewed fodder when one of the culprits finds his ex-wife murdered in his bed. Police take notice, particularly because of an item left at the scene and a cryptic poem. Over the next few months, two others are killed and a calling card ties it all together. However, there is no clear sign who is doing the killings, as the likely suspect has an alibi. Revenge, but by whom? Onwards!

When the tides turn and Wang Lung is forced from his northern town, he heads south. The southern region shows more riches and outside influences, including those who would peddle Christianity. Wang Lung enjoys that he can add many bars of silver to his wealth, but is not entirely happy with the lifestyle. He returns to his peasant life, though uses what he can to prosper. As his family ages, many new clashes occur!

Antonio Valentino was murdered on Hallowe’en Night 1978 by three men who wanted to teach him a lesson. They eluded justice and were found not guilty. Fast forward to 2018 and Detective John Valentino is in his own hot water. Forced into a suspension, he is hanging onto his job with the Detroit PD by a thread. When he sees one of the men accused of killing his father, John sees red and is willing to act, but refrains!

Wang Lung is set to marry a girl from the next town, unsure how this will change his life. He brings her back to his plot of land, where they live with Wang's father. Together, these two cultivate the land as best they can, having children (sons!) whenever the time permits. The land proves prosperous, giving Wang Lung silver from selling his wares. However, drought falls and the land proves to be a struggle. Onwards!

Four inseparable middle-school boys find themselves the targets of a high school gang after nabbing a backpack filed with money. When they take a weekend trip camping, they discover an island with an abandoned house. Choosing to return for more exploration, though wanting to keep it secret, they plan to see what Sometimes Island is all about, even if it might be dangerous. Their determination could backfire, maybe...

August Snow has quite the reputation in Detroit. A former cop who won a massive case against the DPD, Snow fled to Europe to forget it all. Now, a year later, he is back and living in his childhood home. When Snow is approached by a wealthy woman to investigate some bank irregularities, he declines, not wanting to get into PI work. However, when the woman apparently commits suicide, Snow senses there is more to it!

Three years ago, Steve Breiten witnessed what he thought might have been a kidnapping while he was away at his cabin in the Adirondacks. Waiting a week to report it, Steve helped the authorities find a missing young woman. Now, the victim appears at his college office and wants to thank him for all he did, finding many interesting ways that she might repay his kindness. All this rekindles many memories for Steve.

I was recently contacted by the editor of this collection, asking if I might like to read the ARC and offer some thoughts before it was released to the public. This collection is part of a fundraising effort to support booksellers, the intermediary lifeblood of all authors. Jennifer Haupt has found a number of people willing to share their personal insights into life and touch on how COVID-19 has changed everything!

From the memories of a game she host many will know without hesitation, this is a brief autobiography. Alex Trebek tells of his birth and early days in and around Sudbury, Ontario, before he got into journalism and worked for the CBC. Never one to shy away from controversy, Trebek speaks of his life-long love of challenging authority. When Alan Thicke came calling, Trebek agreed to head South and never looked back!

After bringing Corbett back to Colorado to face changes, the legal system takes over. Many offer their insights into what ought to happen, but the process is one that cannot be rushed. When the trial is set and Corbett pleads not guilty, it will be up to lawyers for both sides to argue the case as effectively as they can. Tactics by the defence seek to show that most of the evidence is too vague, though will it work?

After a significant gaffe during some pre-security for POTUS, Secret Service Agent Cain Lemaire finds himself facing premature retirement. After his sister in Japan greases the wheels for a major security job there, Cain flies around the world to experience Japanese life. Working to protect a scandal-ridden CEO, Cain discovers the yakuza, the Asian Mafia. A dust up leads Cain to see how they take revenge over others!

As the Coors kidnapping gets more and more publicity, the answers are still slow to reveal themselves. While the FBI has taken the lead, there are too many questions. Following some witness statements, a car is attributed to the act and it is eventually found in New Jersey, but no one is with it. The hunt is on for Joseph Corbett while many wonder about a motive. Things are about to get much more intense with this!

The ongoing race to stay ahead of the pack leaves Andy and Charlie in a few precarious situations. They must learn to quell Charlie’s abilities, so as not to startle too many people, but also to protect themselves from the agents hunting them down. When Charlie is captured, attempts to hone her skills as a weapon turn things on their head. The little girl will not ‘fire on command’ which means she may be useless.

When Adolph Coors III left for work one February morning in 1960, he thought it would be another Tuesday. However, when he stopped to help an apparently stranded motorist, his life changed forever. It was a set-up and Coors was seen to be a cash cow for Joseph Corbett, who wanted to use the money to help himself. As the story progresses, the reader sees both sides of the search and how things went horribly wrong.

Andy McGee and his daughter, Charlie, have been on the run for a year. It all began when Andy was in college and recruited to undergo some testing with a new and highly potent drug. The end result was some telekinesis and a hell of a lot more. After marrying one of the other test subjects, their daughter, Charlie, appears to have her own ability, pyro-kinesis, which others are trying to study. Thus, the covert trip!

After being booted out of MIT, Angela Hoot is not sure what’s next in her life. When she’s handed a special internship with the FBI, Angela jumps at the chance to put her smarts and computer background to work. Her first case has her helping out with an apparent app that lured a young woman into a killer’s web. Angela begins peeling back the layers of the app, only to see that the killer has been targeting others.

Steps and Donovan follow the case through and discover that things are getting more and more disturbing. The Onion King is surely not a man with whom messing is a good option, but his selection of victims may be coming a little clearer. Following up on some leads and visiting families of the missing women yields a clue, but also shows why they were not priority cases for the police. The sickest parts are yet to come!

When Jimmy and Steps are called out to help find a kidnapper in the forest, it becomes much more complex. The man is cornered in a cabin and begins spouting apparent nonsense about needing to ‘fix’ the woman he has in his trunk, calling her ‘Eight’. It soon becomes apparent that he was tasked to do something by the Onion King, someone the kidnap victim says kept her captive for many days. This case got eerie quickly!

Mary Mallon was an Irish-born cook who worked extensively in the homes of upper class New York families. Without knowing it, she infected a number of people in whom she came into contact with typhoid, though she herself was never ill. The author recounts some of these encounters, as well as the forced isolation that was imposed upon Mallon in the early 20th century, all while she pled innocence and wanted to be free!

Offit offers up a wonderful exploration of vaccines and their strong opponents in the last forty years. While he is firmly against these ‘anti-vaxx’ folks, Offit offers up many of their arguments and shows how the origins of the movement turned up the heat. Modern issues with vaccines seems focussed on pertussis (whooping cough) and how the vaccine led to death or significant retardation, which is disproved often!

“Steps” is employed by the FBI’s Special Tracking Unit, using his skills to locate missing persons and sometimes their bodies. Few know that he has skills unlike many other trackers, as he sees a ‘shine’ in places that cannot usually offer one. Additionally, he sees these images in varied colours. When such a shine offers Steps a luminescent glow, he remembers seeing it before, and soon learns of serial murders.