Blatant Self Promotion — Short Mysteries For The Traveler, Stocking Stuffers

What’s more fun than murder for the holidays?  I’d be happy as hell if you bought any of my books as gifts.  Go here for the complete list.  However I can’t help but think with all the traveling going on this time of year on that short mysteries – mystery novellas – are great small gifts. They are the perfect length for that plane trip from New York to Iowa City.  In fact, these San Francisco stories are trips in themselves.

The Blue Dragon – A murder at the Blue Dragon, a small apartment building in San Francisco’s Chinatown, prompts the absentee owner to hire Chinese American Peter Strand to calm the anxious tenants. But Strand isn’t exactly what he appears to be. Neither are the tenants, who on the surface seem to be regular people going about their lives. Strand, a forensic accountant by trade, doesn’t intend to investigate the murder, but he soon realizes that this isn’t a gang-related killing, as the police believe. The murder was committed by one of the tenants. Finding out which one exposes the secrets of the Blue Dragon and brings Strand face-to-face with a few ghosts of his own. Trade paperback and e-book

Death In The Haight – When Michael Vanderveer goes missing, Private Investigator Noah Lang assumes it’s just another runaway escaping to the Haight, San Francisco’s home to the displaced… until the homicide cops pay him a visit. Fifteen-year-old Michael has been implicated in the murder of a prostitute, and the police don’t want Lang mucking up their investigation — especially Inspector Stern, who has strong opinions about Lang’s questionable past. But Lang becomes inextricably involved.  Michael is being ransomed. As everyone waits for the kidnappers to make their next move, Lang struggles with the moral implications of rescuing Michael, only to have to turn him in for murder; and with Stern, who’s increasingly volatile behavior may just put Lang’s life in grave danger as well. E-book.

Mascara: Death In The Tenderloin – From the very beginning, things just aren’t what they seem. On a late, lonely night, San Francisco private investigator Noah Lang’s eyes deceive him. He makes a mistake. But what should have been simply an embarrassing moment becomes a deadly walk on the wild side. Unfortunately for Lang, before this nightmare is over, he puts his life on the line a second time for a new client who may or may not have a missing husband, who might or might not live on a boat in Tiburon and who seems to have an odd way to settle the bill for services rendered. Available as a trade paperback and e-book

Also check out this recent article: http://electricliterature.com/17-brilliant-short-novels-you-can-read-in-a-sitting/