BLURB:
Blood
and Gold, the third book in The Craige Ingram Mystery Series, once again tests
the instincts and skills of retired Navy SEAL/part-time private investigator
Craige Ingram. Lust, greed, body parts and unrestrained wild sex parties are
what await Craige Ingram when he leaves the comforts of his South Carolina home
to visit his former SEAL buddy, Detective Spinner Krespinak. Set in the
Colorado underbelly of a sordid sable and faux glitz ski mecca, Detective
Spinner Krespinak suspects drugs have made their way to the snowy playground
that is Aspen. An Olympic ski hopeful is brutally murdered, Spinner vanishes,
and Craige Ingram is shot as events spin out of control with a Catch-22 no one
anticipates.
Excerpt One:
Spinner's
high mountain, ski slope bronzed hand ruffled through his hair. He flipped another page, “That's the third one,
counting the other mismatched body parts as one and two.” Frowned.
“There's not much more here than with the others.” Handed Craige Loopy's prelims. “Take a look
at those…lemme know what you think.”
Krespinak brown eyes bayoneted the blue stick-‘em pasted to the center
of his monitor, “…mm…interesting phone memo.
Seems Hizzoner the Mayor is concerned.
Wants to keep the lid on. Claims
he doesn't want to scare away business.
Real fact behind his fume-an’-fuss is all about not wanting to scare
away votes in the upcoming elections.
Media’s already nosing around about this morning’s torch job—that ought
to rattle his cage. Stroking a yancy
politician doesn't gripe me, but if he was serious we could use some additional
personnel pavement pounding for answers.”
Ferron said,
“Loopy said she hadn’t gotten the final results on the mitochondrial DNA
runs. But from what she’s seen so far,
she said it doesn’t look like this latest one even comes close to a match with
any of the previous body parts. Time of
death is iffy as well. If the body was
left outside in the subfreezing temps, Loopy said it could stretch the time
interval. Her best guess is within a
week or two of the others. Only
difference this time, we have a whole body.”
Craige asked
Ferron, “When did the first one show up?”
Ferron
thought for a moment, asked Spinner, “When did we get the first one? A little over two months ago?”
“Something
like that…date’s logged in the case file,” Spinner said. “What bothers me most is not what we have,
but what we don’t have. Along with no
IDs and no statewide missing person reports, there’s not even a close to a
match to any of the age ranges Loopy suggested.”
“You think
the killings are random?” Craige said.
“No—I don't
think they're random. But I'm one of the
few who feels that way.” Spinner thought
of the grisly pieces in the morgue cooler.
He didn't like prowling for motives.
Liked it less their coming up empty with damn few answers. Sure didn't like the doubts gnawing his
innards. “I'm stuck at which came
first—chicken or the egg quandary. Which
victims were intentional targets? Which
ones might’ve just been in the way; killed to make sure there were no awkward
inconvenient witnesses. If they are
serial killings, we’re not seeing any time-pattern between kills. There has to be a reason for the times
between each victim, and why are we finding only pieces?”
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
With
postgraduate degrees and faculty appointments in several medical universities,
Hawk MacKinney has taught graduate courses in both the United States and
Jerusalem. In addition to professional articles and texts on chordate
neuroembryology, Hawk has authored several works of fiction.
Hawk began
writing mysteries for his school newspaper. His works of fiction, historical
love stories, science fiction and mystery-thrillers are not genre-centered, but
plot-character driven, and reflect his southwest upbringing in Arkansas, Texas
and Oklahoma. Moccasin Trace, a historical novel nominated for the prestigious
Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes
Book Award, details the family bloodlines of his serial protagonist in the
Craige Ingram Mystery Series… murder and mayhem with a touch of romance. Vault
of Secrets, the first book in the Ingram series, was followed by Nymrod
Resurrection, Blood and Gold, and The Lady of Corpsewood Manor. All have
received national attention. Hawk’s
latest release in the Ingram series is due out this fall with another mystery-thriller
work out in 2014. The Bleikovat Event, the first volume in The Cairns of
Sainctuarie science fiction series, was released in 2012.
"Without
question, Hawk is one of the most gifted and imaginative writers I have had the
pleasure to represent. His reading fans have something special to look forward
to in the Craige Ingram Mystery Series. Intrigue, murder, deception and
conspiracy--these are the things that take Hawk's main character, Navy
ex-SEAL/part-time private investigator Craige Ingram, from his South Carolina
ancestral home of Moccasin Hollow to the dirty backrooms of the nation's
capital and across Europe and the Middle East."
Barbara
Casey, President
Barbara Casey
Literary Agency
Links:
www.hawkmackinney.net
GIVEAWAY:
Hawk will be awarding a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.
Posts
Wonderfully "real" dialog in the excerpt. Thx for sharing!