Showing results by narrator "Thomas Block" in All Categories

On an early morning walk through the nature preserve on the east end of Folly Beach on their way to photograph the iconic Morris Island Lighthouse, Chris Landrum and his friend Charles Fowler’s peaceful morning takes an abrupt turn. They encounter a woman who tells them she got separated from her husband during a storm, then claims they’d been relic hunting. Her husband can’t verify what he and his wife were doing. He’s dead - murdered.

The South Beach Sadist is dead.... Jake had seen to that. But in two weeks, Miami has two new victims, each butchered and their bodies marked with the sign of the Sadist...a sign never revealed to the public. As cryptic clues, and the promise of a third victim, begin to arrive in his office, Jake Sullivan, chief prosecutor for the Justice Department in Miami, and Mike Lang, his investigator and best friend, are once again hunting a madman. As the trail leads to a rogue DEA agent, Jake and Mike close in on the killer, not realizing that saving victim three means saving one of their own.

It's the 1880s. Clayton Carter, a Shakespeare-quoting cowboy, is on the run from a romantic misunderstanding. He finds himself in Pigeon Ford, a small Texas town. An inadvertent display of his ability with a pistol leads to an offer to be the town's deputy sheriff. But it soon becomes apparent that Pigeon Ford is not the peaceful town he had been led to believe it was. A series of events nearly cost Clayton his life, but only serve to reinforce his efforts to enlist friends to clean up the town.

When a retired United States Senator's passion for deep-sea treasure hunting off the coast of Palm Beach leads to murder, Jake Sullivan, chief prosecutor for the Justice Department in Miami, thinks he has an open and shut case: the DNA of the man pulled out of the warm waters near the ill-fated yacht matches blood found on the deck. But life is never so simple for Jake. In a rush of political maneuvering, Jake's suspect is whisked away by the State Department under a claim of diplomatic immunity. The mystery man is no simple treasure thief; he is a covert operator for the Mossad.

It's the summer of 1958, and Meyer Lansky, the mob's accountant, is barely a warm breeze away from seeing the crown jewel of his gambling empire sparkling on the ocean: Havana, the Monte Carlo of the Caribbean. Then, Castro came down from the mountains, armed and on a mission. Batista's days were numbered and so was his patronage of Lansky and his cronies. It is said that Lansky moved hundreds of millions of dollars out of Cuba. But, when he died in 1983, his estate was reported to be worth only 60,000 dollars in cash. What happened to the money?

Chris Landrum’s trip to Nashville to visit his best friend Charles hits a sour note when they learn of the death of the agent who had persuaded Heather, Charles’s girlfriend, to move to Music City to seek fame and fortune as a singer. Tagging along on the trip is Cal Ballew, an aging country music performer and owner of Cal’s Bar and Grill on Folly Beach, South Carolina.

It is the end of June, and President Jordan Fletcher has just negotiated a historical treaty with Cuba, and its signing will be held at the end of October in Miami. Because of Fletcher's past relationship with him in the Benjamin Matthews matter, he has asked Jake Sullivan to coordinate the treaty-signing ceremony.

Matt Brooks knows the forests and fields of the Midwestern farms better than most young people his age and following the early loss of his father has honed his skills as a hunter and outdoorsman to a razor's edge. He will need all these skills when long-established neighbor trouble escalates during the quest for a legendary trophy buck, and the deterioration of his arch-nemesis reaches a pinnacle of no return. Distracted by this mounting trouble, a new girl in town, and the approaching hunting season, Matt is cast down a path which will change his life forever.

Jake Sullivan had everything - his dream job as the chief prosecuting attorney in the Miami Office of the Justice Department, a loving family, and good friends. Many would describe him as a bulldog of a man with a strong moral streak. No one would have predicted what was about to come. When Jake Sullivan takes on a high-profile case, he naturally anticipates both a moral and a professional victory.

Four aging comedians deliver anything but laughs when they descend upon Folly Beach, a small, laid-back barrier island near Charleston, South Carolina...Jokes, lies, secrets, dead bodies, several murder suspects, and danger follow the comics. It’s up to retired bureaucrat Chris along with his cadre of quirky pals to sort out what’s going on before some of them are added to the list of victims.

Chris Landrum and his friend Barbara Deanelli’s search for shark teeth abruptly changes directions when they discover a woman at water’s edge clinging to a surfboard. How she got there was a mystery - a mystery compounded when she doesn’t remember her name, her past, or who abducted her, and nearly sent her to her death in the mid-December waters off the coast of Folly Beach, South Carolina. Chris and a cadre of his quirky pals are determined to learn the woman’s identity and what happened.

An accidental drug overdose is ruled the cause of the death of the daughter of Chris Landrum’s neighbor. The young woman’s father, a retired police detective, had accused Chris of murder days after he’d arrived on Folly Beach a decade ago, and they’ve butted heads frequently since then. So, why get involved and question the cause of death? Could it be because the daughter was dating Joel Hurt, a man on the path to unseating Chris’s good friend, Brian Newman, as mayor of the small barrier-island?

Former Army Ranger Jack Bradshaw has found a niche in the civilian world as a private investigator and part-time executive protection agent. His new task of protecting a political activist was accepted with reluctance. It rapidly heats up when an attempt is made on his principal's life.

In the darkness of night, the once-powerful, single engine, Piper Comanche 260 airplane began experiencing catastrophic engine failure. Within seconds, the previously well-tuned aircraft was shaking violently putting the plane in a rapid descent while the cockpit was quickly filling with thick smoke. Five Minutes to Impact is a true story of overcoming fear in the face of unexpected crisis, understanding the providence of God in the dealings of man, and renewing our faith in His divine plan for our lives.

Dean Jeremy Drake, a six-five, biracial private eye, nicknamed D.J., is once again up to his neck in danger, deception, and murder as he works three cases in Portland, Oregon, in the mid-1990s. The former Police Bureau homicide detective reluctantly agrees to be the bodyguard for a gorgeous lady named Bailey Carlyle, who claims to be on the run from her abusive boyfriend. When the boyfriend turns up dead and is identified as running a high-end call girl operation, the authorities point the finger at Bailey as a leading suspect in his murder, labeling her a jealous prostitute.

Army veteran Sheriff Megan Holloway has a lot on her mind: a dog with a belly full of smuggled diamonds, a terrified woman hiding at the Bailey’s Boarding House, and a mafioso who is likely connected to both. What's that city crook doing in her town, anyway? She saw Aaron, the man in her life, flirting with another woman. Add to that, she relived her personal nightmare of the war in Afghanistan, again. Calling in the proper government agencies, Megan manipulates them, keeping control of the investigation in the background. Fortunately, she has an ace-in-the-hole the Feds don't.

A mummified body, crimes from the ‘30’s, ‘80’s and present day, a Native American forensic specialist with the FBI and the women who can lead him to the body as well as the solution to the crimes of the past and present. Bullets and a blizzard drive Kam and David together, is that enough along with some shared heritage? What is Kam hiding that could drive her away from Riverview and the new man in her life? What has Megan survived that causes her nightmares? Who is trying to stop the investigation and why? All questions answered in this novel. Riverview, a ranching town where your neighbors are your friends and stand behind you when you need them. Rugged country to test all those who enter it away from the safety of town.

Tecate Peak traces the ebb and flow, the frenzy and the calm that is the day to day life of Harry Dugan, a cop from a family of cops who proves to be the epitome of the old adage “no good deed goes unpunished”, who finds himself, a middle aged man, jettisoned from a promising career in law enforcement and a 10-year happy marriage, with the requisite rose covered cottage in the New England countryside.

There is a killer at large in the oak grasslands of southeastern Arizona whose weapon of choice is a deadly variety of southwestern rattlesnake. Deputy Sheriff Calvin Creede doesn’t like snakes, but he and his compatriots seek to find the mountain cave from which a collection of Mojave rattlesnakes recently was looted. Then he must determine which of a variety of suspects has taken them home. Was it the leader of a gang of border vigilantes? Was it a greedy developer who will stop at nothing to gain control of land and water for his business ambitions? Or could it have been a recently disinherited trust child?

Alone in a rest area, Bethany is witness to a murder. The victim tells her to trust no one and begs her to take documents to his son before he dies. Hiding in endurance-ride camps and traveling with other riders to stay hidden from the killers, Bethany moves from New Mexico to Colorado. She changes everything, from her looks to the license plates on her truck. Meeting Roger, the victim's son, is problematic. Was he involved in the death of his father? Forced to make a quick decision, Bethany trusts him...up to a point.