An Arizona wife and mother is murdered while on holiday in Mexico. Bailey Crane is an auxiliary cop with the Phoenix PD and is obliquely involved in the case until he visits close friends in Pueblo del Mar. The local police chief seeks Bailey's help in this most unusual caper about a philandering husband and a transvestite lover. There is of course the ever-loving musings of our southern Sherlock, an encounter with a mysterious mystic seer of 'Time and Place, ' and just about all the emotions in the human heart and soul. Bailey gets banged around and challenged at the highest level of his endurance. When family and friends are caught in the ugly web of corruption, drugs, and sex, our hero's Cherokee blood hits the boiling point. The brutally devastating climax comes in a 'Whale Shack' on the scrub brush and sand near the Sea of Cortez. This tale was inspired by an actual murder some years ago, and it's one you won't want to miss

Bailey Crane, auxiliary cop for the Phoenix PD, is set-up by the bad guys and nearly consumed by a warehouse fire as this adventure begins. One of the thugs utters a mysterious phrase, 'Beware the Brutus Gate, ' and the boys in blue have a good chuckle and try to figure out its meaning. This simple string of words marks the start of a tale that leads our southern muser/sleuth to the worst criminal elements in our society, elements that reach the highest levels of government and politics. Bailey encounters the players of the drug world, murder, and political corruption with his special panache and contempt. It's a case that has it all, and there are some personal changes in the life of our crusader for truth and justice. Bailey's emotions run the normal gamut as he plods and ponders his new realities, his life, and the meaning of it all. The climax to THE BRUTUS GATE plays out at an old ranch on the Mexican border, just south of Yuma, Arizona. It's a fun caper you won't want to miss.

Bailey Crane and wife, Wendy, are just settling into their new condo unit on the Sea of Cortez when the call from an old friend begins an unexpected and dangerous ride through another mystery maze. They're all here, the scammers, the contract killers, the good guys and the bad guys. Bailey came to the sea for semi-retirement fun in the sun. Instead, he gets kidnapped twice, bruised and battered twice, meets a man of intrigue, and, finally finds that friendship and life can come to surprising ends. With compelling characters and a beautiful backdrop of sea and desert elegance, this is a story with surprising climatic moments, not to be missed.

Meet Bailey Crane, a son of the south, now firmly transplanted in Phoenix, Arizona. Bailey is six feet tall, one hundred eighty-five pounds, a ruggedly good looking guy in the mold of a young Christopher Plummer, the "Sound of Music" gentleman. Bailey has just enough nuance in his charming southern manners and speech to make him appealing to most, perhaps a bit flamboyant for some. He's got a soft manufacturing rep business that brings in easy money. He's an actor on the local and regional scene, doing television commercials, print modeling, and some theater. He's a private investigator for a few attorney friends in town, and, a former cop, he is an auxiliary detective for the Phoenix PD. Bailey has love, friends, golf, and a bon vivant life style. For the most part the man is a crusader without a cape and has life just about where he wants it. In "An Arizona Tragedy" Bailey Crane's life takes a perilous and tumultuous twist when a young lady friend is brutally murdered in the Arizona desert. The friend, a twenty-six year old single mother and model, goes missing for weeks, is then found in a desert arroyo just northeast of Scottsdale, her skull crushed, her body ravaged and unrecognizable. Working privately on an estate matter for one of his attorney friends, Bailey finds the name of his lady friend's boyfriend. The discovery does not necessarily have great significance but it does start the wheels turning in the mind of our southern sleuth. Bailey becomes a target for an unknown pursuer and ends up battered, bruised, and angry. His strong feeling of hostility pushes him deeper into his friend's murder, and, finding a possible connecting link, he travels to Washington, D. C., to the hallowed halls and offices of the nation's lawmakers. At his hotel across the Potomac the unknown assassin strikes again, this time wounding our noble protagonist. The bad guy gets away, and Bailey has a temporary stay in a Reston, Virginia hospital. Through more ironic turns and twists Bailey goes on to solve not only his friend's homicide but another brutal slaying in the nation's capital. With the help of his PPD buddies, and, one very special female cop, the bad guy behind the gruesome killings is caught. The climatic ending scene in this Bailey Crane caper is nail biting tense and will keep the readers riveted to their seats of choice. "An Arizona Tragedy" was inspired by two actual homicides. The Phoenix slaying of the young mother and model has never been solved. With the decomposition of the body, accelerated by the desert's extreme heat and denizens of the habitat, evidence was scarce. This Phoenix murder was also very personal for the author ... he was a friend of the real murder victim. While "An Arizona Tragedy" was written to be commercially acceptable and successful, the author also wanted it to be a token of remembrance.

When Prentice Paul Hiller enters the senior care facility he brings with him not only a hip surgery gone wrong, but, a mirror of his past, cracked with the stress of all his memories: a family broken apart by their Appalachian circumstances and the 'great depression;' a childhood tainted by a father's abusive nature; an impetuous marriage and a sorrowful divorce; a subsequent search of 'isms, ' for love and meaning in California bars; a tableau of horrible events, including a senseless murder and a desert survival. THE CRACKED MIRROR, Reflections of an Appalachian Son, is a search for some semblance of legacy by PP Hiller as he feels the weight of aging and a perceived inconsequential life. In an Arizona senior care facility he bonds with Greta Fogel, herself a patient and a former clinical psychologist. Encouraged by Greta, PP writes of his life, his heritage, his mistakes, the events that have shaped him, and the demon within that he cannot dispel. He gives his passionate views on criminal justice, love, politics, religion, war, and his favorite writers. Greta gives her insight and support, telling some of her own life's secrets. There is pain in the writing of his memoir, but there is also closure and a guarded inner peace. This short stay in the care facility brings more clarity to PP's life and yet another memory to store away...to take with him to the 'Sea of Cortez.'

"Joe Public's Political Perspective" is a book of observations from a citizen and a person who does not apologize for his conservative leanings. However, the author of this book understands that one political party does not hold all the answers to critical issues facing our nation. The current Democratic president, his administration and Democratic-controlled Senate have created in this person's opinion many problems in a number of areas. The author could be accused of ranting and raving as he comments on some of our very important issues. While members of both parties without question have contributed to costly legislation, too much wasteful spending, an entitlement mentality, this current president, his liberal supporters, and his his entire administration have been evasive, inept, irresponsible, and continually in a campaign mode...in short, the American people have not been served well by the people they elected to serve them. The most egregious problem this administration has created is the Affordable Care Act, or, the euphemistically labeled 'Obamacare'. The author believes this act does more to harm our way of life than any piece of legislation in our history. The act was created in a shadowy 'supremacy' of liberal leaders of Democrat-persuasion, thousands of pages of costly mandates, little understood at its initial stages and likely not read by very many of the people in congress who work for us. As most people will know by now, the ACA had a woe begotten launch and will likely lead to doctor shortages, and costly insurance premiums. There is no doubt in the author's mind that this law is a precursor to 'Single Payer' healthcare. The author writes about the ACA and many other subjects that face our country - Education and its all powerful union, The war on terror, religion, the economy, and others. There is no claim in the author's comments to any political expertise. He has lived a long life, has seen many political turnovers in power. He is, like so many others, concerned about the future direction of this great nation and felt the need to make his observations known. The author has written this book because he cares about the United States and its future. He does not wish to see further erosion to the ideals most Americans hold dear - Freedom - Liberty - The Pursuit of Happiness.

A non-fictional memoir that covers the author's time in East Tennessee and his whirlwind education in the big world of neon lights, gin mills, pretty ladies, acting, television, stage, and film. It is also a book that takes a remarkably honest look at some mistakes and triumphs. It is a story that has depth beneath the glitter of shiny piano bars and lovely women, beneath a family disconnect and sorrowful musings. The book reveals the author's relationships in his life, the lamenting moments of despair and loneliness, the never-ending search for meaning, his faith, and the brutal assessments of who he really is. It has the family disconnect, even murder and suicide, and there is always a candor that is both refreshing and shocking in its self-analyses. In the end, it is likely a bio not so different from everyman... just changes in circumstance and event.