It's Here Now! "Empty Places" Now Available

I’m am very pleased to announce my latest mystery thriller, Empty Places, is now available in both print and Kindle ebook from Amazon.com. Empty Places takes the reader back to the mid-1980s as the United States clawed its way out of the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression, scandal after scandal plagued the national political scene, and the White House waged two illegal and unpopular wars in Central America.

News service reporter Peter Brandt returns from covering those wars to the wealthy California desert playground of Palm Springs to bury his ex-wife, TV journalist Robin Anderson, with whom he is still in love. When Peter learns Robin was brutally murdered and the local police are doing nothing to uncover her killer, he sets out with his friend, retired cop Matt Banyon, to discover her killer.

Peter and Matt’s investigation uncovers a cabal of corrupt politicians, anti-communist Nicaraguan Contra supporters, and drug smugglers. Before it’s over, Peter will face his own death in a dark and empty place.

Every novelist is said to draw on his or her personal experiences to create their work. For me, Empty Places is the book that drew most on my own life. Like my character Peter Brandt, I worked as a police reporter for a daily newspaper in Palm Springs in the late 1970s and early 1980. Later, as an investigative reporter for San Diego Magazine, I reported on the Americans involved in providing supplies to the Nicaraguan counter-revolutionaries, or Contras, in the 1980s.

Empty Places is available in both print and Kindle ebook formats from Amazon. The print edition will soon be available from Barnes & Noble.