JUST ANNOUNCED!
COMING DECEMBER 9TH
Someone has murdered three prominent residents of Old Town Alexandria, Virginia including the wife of the city's sheriff. When the trail goes cold, the sheriff's son hires dismissed FBI agent, and now private investigator CJ Hawk, to look into the murder with fresh eyes. His investigation leads to the discovery something a lot more sinister. A secret government agency, code-named ZULU CENTER, has been spun up inside the State Department with a single mission; hide the identities of the nation's covert intelligence operatives and the military's special operators.
Technology is a double edged sword though. Nations are using fingerprints, retina scans, facial recognition software, and even DNA to not only monitor their own citizens, but people entering their countries from abroad. This is a challenge for the spooks and SEALs. So, ZULU CENTER has figured out a way to leverage that technology. Or have they? Often, when a new technology is developed by the deep state, what can go wrong eventually does. It's up to CJ Hawk and a small team of loyalists who want to be on the right side of history to solve the murders, prevent another, and expose the dark side of ZULU CENTER.
Inspired by the actual murders of three prominent Old Town Alexandria residents, ZULU CENTER will have you ripping through the pages right to the end.
Pre-order today on Amazon at https://amzn.to/4dro9ZK
The details on this are Top Secret for now. But it's going to be HOT🔥
This is Book 1, Department Echo, in my flagship CJ Hawk - FBI Thriller series with Zulu Center due to arrive in late 2024 or early 2025. Book 3 Washington Field will follow. Department Echo finds CJ Hawk as the first police officer on the scene when Dr. David Richards is assassinated answering the door to his Old Town, Alexandria townhouse late one night in 1984. Despite the fact his estranged spouse was seeking custody of their children who lived with him, there was little evidence, and the case went cold for years. By 1990 Hawk has joined the FBI and was in command of a SWAT team when a bank robbery takedown went tragically wrong resulting in the death of a fellow agent. He finds himself “removed from the rolls of the Bureau,” and working boring cases as a PI. Hawk is unexpectedly retained by a prominent attorney to solve the murder once and for all, although who the client is remains a mystery.
His investigation spirals in directions Hawk never saw coming. His sometimes girlfriend Kori West married a flawed attorney on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee. A sketchy K Street lobbying firm with ties to members of Congress and Iranian Intelligence is uncovered. Most challenging, Hawk trips into a rogue Department of Defense (DoD) intelligence office codenamed Department Echo that operates in the Black. Officially, it doesn’t exist - it’s off the books, and then these scenarios collide in a powerful ending that delivers justice for all that deserve it – except maybe Hawk.
Department Echo was inspired by an actual assassination of a prominent doctor in Old Town Alexandria in 1984, and many of the scenes and action come from the author’s experience during his more than thirty year career in law enforcement. Now available in eBook, paperback and soon, Audiobook.
Book - https://amzn.to/3Y6aou
Audio - Coming
Book 1, Rosslyn Station, finds Detective Kiki Diaz making her way to federal court in Washington, D.C for the start of a human trafficking trial that she was the lead undercover detective on. Her commute on the D.C. Metro should have been the easiest part of the day until all hell breaks loose at Rosslyn Station - last stop in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Alternating chapters follow Diaz's ten year career in the growing Fairfax County Police Department, leading to a final standoff at the courthouse and a struggle for survival. Availabe in eBook, paperback, and Audiobook.
Book - https://amzn.to/4exgqvb
Audio - https://amzn.to/3WcZHE9
In Book 2, Fairfax Station, Detective Sergeant Kiki Diaz is newly assigned to the Robbery - Homicide squad at headquarters when she get the ticket on the assassination of the Governor of Virginia who was just murdered in his Fairfax Station home. Not only is she facing a growing list of suspects, she must battle the state police who are claiming jurisdiction over the investigation. The problem is, they had a protective detail on the Governor, so all is not as it appears. Availiable in ebook, paperback and soon, Audiobook.
Book - https://amzn.to/3Y5Vuoo
Audio - https://amzn.to/4eKXgp
RECOMMENDATIONS
I often end my newletters advising readers what I am currently watching, reading, or listening to. Below are some of the things I have recommended, which I may receive a comission on if ordered from my web site. That said, I will never recommend something I have not bought and used myself.
In the wake of the July 13th assassination attempt against former President Trump, I started this audiobook version of Carol Leonnig's 2020 book about the then failures at the Secret Service. I'm just getting started but so far it's a compelling listen.
This is the seventh book in the Jack Carr Terminal List series and it's maybe the best one of all. I've got the special edition "shot through" version as well as the audiobook and the eBook. Kindle and Audible make it easy to pick up from where you left off on either device. This is a great way to consume long books, and this one clocks in at 562 pages.
This one is in the cue in my Audible app although I haven't started it yet. If you saw my recent Substack article, I discussed my short career in the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service between my time in the police department and the FBI. The two protagonist in this story are DSS agents doing the same job I did for a few years, so I'm anxious to dig in. The first audio book in the series, Armored, was excellent.
I've noted on Substack that the 1990s were the heydays for police drama on T.V. and NYPD Blue was among the best of several shows. I've also noted that when this show aired for 12 seasons, it was the busiest time of my life working and raising kids and frankly, I didn't watch much television. I still don't have a ton of free time, but I have more, so I'm working my way through this series. As you can imagine, many folks in law enforcment are not easily impressed with cop shows. This one is good - it's not about shootouts, it's about the cops. Joseph Wambaugh, the godfather of the police procedural, once said, "it's not about what the cops do to the street, it's what the streets do to the cops." NYPD Blue certainly embodies that.
I was a skeptic on Kindle, so hear me out. You know what changed my mind? An eighteen hour flight to Tokyo. I was reading three books at the time, and I needed to go all carryon. No way I was hauling three big hardbacks in my backpack, even though I love the feel of the pages. Besides the fact you can store a couple hundred books on the thing, what really sold me was the ability to cross devices with the app. Stuck in the DMV or doctors office? Whip out my iPhone and the app picks up where I left off reading on Kindle last night. It also syncs to your Audible app so Audio and eBooks pick up where you left off. Oh, and it might have saved my marriage too since I'm a 3 a.m. reader sometimes, and now the light stays off.
How many of those $25 power banks have you bought at the airport only to have them not hold much of a charge, then die weeks or months later. This Ankr power bank is THE best one out there. I've had mine for two years and while I'm sure like any rechargable battery its degraded, I sure can't tell. It charges an iPhone or Kindle in half the time of plugging them in. The biggest challenge with these Ankr products is keeping friends and family from walking off with them.
Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Album Collection: Can any real jazz aficionado have too much Miles Davis? The answer to that is no. And this is the ultimate Miles collection. It's $249, but it's also 70 CDs, with mini original liner notes, and a video DVD. Streaming is great, but I'm a big proponent of owning your music, otherwise you are leasing the rights only until a streaming service changes the terms. This is a huge value for the ultimate jazz fan. Miles Davis: The Complete MColumbialbumCollec