I’ll never forget the moment I fell in love with Claire. We were in her dad’s law office, on the 10th story of a vintage high-rise with gorgeous lake views. She kissed me, and then delivered a kick to my solar plexus that sent me crashing backwards through those huge …

My fifth gin and tonic. Clinks from the ice, blue lights on the wall. Car doors slam. I told them where to look. All week their detectives sniffed around, asked questions, so I made their work simple. One more sip and I’ll be ready. *** I met Teddy in Cambridge. …

If there was one true thing that folks could say about ole Spark McGlothlin, it was that he loved to hunt. No matter what the season — quail, dove, squirrel, rabbit, turkey, or deer — you could bet your last dollar he’d be out in the woods or in the …

“My concern is that the timeline seems to be a bit off here,” said Detective Gonzales with a sympathetic smile. He was the good cop; fortyish, fit, and neatly dressed in a sportscoat over an open-collar blue shirt.  Gonzales was probably a family man, indulged his wife and kids, went …

Southwest Kansas, May 1879 The lone rider was half a day east of Dodge when he saw the covered wagon. It was bumping along the flat prairie north of the road, pulled by two mules and driven by two men. The rider reined in and watched them approach. At first …

Could the sun shine any brighter, the day be any warmer than perfection? The scent of every crop and flower mushroomed with abundance, filling the air of Welcome, Tennessee, where everyone smiled and nodded as they passed, polite and welcoming as could be. Howell Rogers, the blind mayor of Welcome …

“Mr. Acurso, I’ve got an idea you’ll want to write,” said a teenage kid, his quavering voice cutting through the calming background noise of Acurso’s favorite coffee shop. The award-winning writer always started his mornings working at his laptop on his Mars-detective series. The barista had served him with her …

A shift in the paradigm occurred while they took their breakfast. Online influencers saw their stock value skyrocket before lunchtime. Instead of police on their beat, people artlessly began to handle their own affairs, sometimes at the end of a writ, sometimes at the end of a cudgel, sometimes from …

It was a wet January morning when my late wife called. She wanted to meet me for a drink. “It would be good to catch up,” she chuckled through the phone. I agreed to the sentiment, as well as when she wanted to meet. It’s impolite to refuse the dead, …

It was the smell that hit him first. Halfway through a yawn, walking down the hallway and into the kitchen, he’d expected the comforting morning scents of percolating coffee, slightly bronzed toast. What assaulted his nostrils and caught scratching at the back of his throat instead was the fetid stench …