Friends enjoy rewards knowing Frank Gould…yet these have to be weighed against a price. And sometimes that price has to be paid.
Have you ever had one of those lives? Frank Gould has. Today, he roams the streets of San Francisco looking for lost pets. Tempted by a daughter’s love for her dying father, and her tale of his final request, he will stop chasing dogs and cats just long enough to run down something more exotic and, with the help of some bunnies, find himself retracing his youth, rediscovering his lost love and child, and begin staring at the end of his rope, hoping not to find his neck inside. Turning to his friends for help, they will step together into a trap, quickly discovering themselves in the hands of a ghost.
Soon Frank uncovers mysteries that begin to mount rather than resolve, falling through a sequence of coincidences hunting for a killer long-thought dead. Traveling the country from Pacific Coast to the sweltering Southern farms of Frank’s younger days, then north towards the Nation’s Capital, the question looms: why are they being pulled towards Washington? Nothing in Frank’s training, nor the intense experiences he gained at the feet of a spymaster will help him to answer that question.The bunnies, however… Now, that’s another matter. Will Frank pay attention? And might they shed light on more than he imagines? But then the other mystery awaits… Who is Frank Gould?
“…so engrossing, fun, funny, deep, sad and very unique. More like poetry than prose at times. Always kept me curious and wanting more.” EH
“Not Michael Connelly, not Agatha Christie. Nor anything in between or on either side you’ve come across before. By the end of the long ride you may well be left little more than exhausted by everything that comes your way and curious about what just happened. But this certainly will expand your expectations of the genre.” LN
From the Author
These books are written with two goals in mind (of course there is the mystery, suspense and action…that’s a given, I hope): I want to make my readers laugh. A lot. I probably don’t succeed all the time. Everyone has a different sense of humor. I also want to make them think. A lot.
I grew up around books, but also around movies and cartoons that taught me lessons I’ve applied in my writing. I’ve tried to make my writing ring true to a kind of sensibility that was alive in the films of the 1930s, also the popular novels of that period, when popular novels still were being written about “big ideas.” Films like “The Thin Man” series inspire the spirit behind my characters. Again, at least in part, because I’ve also wanted to bring in a 21st century variety of realism…since it all takes place in the very near future.
However, at times, you would find little difference between Frank Gould and William Powell’s Nick Charles. Nora Charles? That role gets assigned to several others. Asta has to be played by Frank’s cat, Peanut and, if you know cats…well, no competition.
The “big ideas”? They come at you like confetti, lots and often, like during a parade. Yet they always have a role to play, some connection to what is going on, no matter how out of left field they seem to be at the time they appear. They are “clues” at times and otherwise important evidence of what lay behind the curtain of the lives we all lead, the mystery we all share that pertains to the game being played on the pages you are reading. Whether you realize it or not. And, hopefully, you will…before the game that is “afoot” ends. Or shortly after.
With each book I am creating the building blocks of new stories that will translate out into future books. Frank will, over time, fill in the gaps of these stories. Each of us dances out a mystery in our lives. Most of us hide a story from others, some out of a perceived necessity, some out of fear. Some are forced to. Sometimes people like Frank come by to solve those mysteries for us. Sometimes they fall into our laps and volunteer.