Showing results by narrator "Randy McCarten" in All Categories

The widower says his wife was killed by gangs - but now he’s running for Mayor of New York City. Just to be sure (or else to portray himself as a properly mourning husband), he hires PIs Joey Mancuso and Father Dom to solve the murder. Only they can’t help noticing he’s pushing them to come to the gang conclusion as well. Hey, is something fishy here?

A presumed Russian spy is found tortured and shot in the face in his high-rise condominium in South Beach, Florida. Incredibly, the perpetrators of the gruesome murder correctly copied the manner in which the victim was killed, as described in best-selling author, Jack Ryder’s last novel. Jack is a 40-year-old divorcee, and a Wall Street retired financial analyst turned crime mystery writer. His new lifestyle does not include alarm clocks, suits, or ties. Plus two more novellas!

In his seventh hard-boiled tale, New York-based Private Eye Joey Mancuso travels to the lush, verdant shores of Miami Beach. But this is no vacation - Joey’s wading knee deep into a gritty cesspool of corruption, using his street smarts and industry connections to investigate a vast financial conspiracy. A young hedge-fund employee - a kid right out of college, green as can be - was killed by an anonymous sedan while on a motorcycle ride after hitting the South Beach clubs. Miami Beach police don’t seem interested, but Joey does - the kid’s dad is a friend of a friend. 

I did not learn of the cold-blooded assassination of several CIA agents, who were part of the team on our previous mission, Operation DFC, until it was too late. Spencer “RedDog” Watkins and I are still alive, but our loved ones paid the ultimate price for being a part of our lives, leaving us heartbroken and consumed by an unquenchable thirst for revenge. Black Viper and Raccoon survived the first round of murders orchestrated by the de Santos cartel and were assigned to join us on a total black op, which I nicknamed Operation S&D – Seek and Destroy.

Enter the world of Leslie, a young girl thrust into the clutches of an ominous storm as her life spirals into an abyss of uncertainty. A single knock on the door changes everything, setting in motion a series of events that will test her courage and resilience. In this captivating narrative, Leslie finds herself entangled in a world of fear, anger, darkness and mystery. Her journey becomes a battle as she reaches the inescapable truth, her life will never be the same.

The vic Oscar Stanton (name etched into his designer trousers) was gunned down in Washington Square Park in broad daylight, just after a lunchtime rendezvous with a business associate. A quick and dirty ID reveals the real Oscar Stanton was working in cybersecurities for the DO and, perhaps unsurprisingly, was KIA in Afghanistan. And Mancuso’s antics tend to weave a winding yarn as intricately connected as a satisfying Sherlock Holmes.

Ex British special forces, Frankie Armstrong turned American private eye, is dragged into an investigation when two skeletons are unearthed in the grounds of the condo complex where he lives in Naples Florida. Frankie’s colleague Detective Sam Randazzo is on vacation so the pressure piles on Frankie as he’s simultaneously tasked to find a doctor who’s gone missing in mysterious circumstances.

Based on a true story, HANGTOWN is a historical western about the hangings in a placer mining town that once went by that moniker, one of the first established diggings during the chaos of the Gold Rush. Set from 1848 to 1850, the unlawful were punished and hanged swiftly for crimes of theft and violence, haunting forever what is now Placerville, California.

Arriving in Thailand for my first black-op, Operation DFC, as part of an elite team ready to act on recent intel that over a thousand men and/or their remains are still behind enemy lines, Bangkok is our last stopping point before slipping into Vietnam and extracting as many American prisoners as possible.

Sheriff Lance Tallbear’s half-blood Apache heritage leaves him struggling to find his place in a world where neither white nor Indian wants or readily accepts him. He faces the world his shaman father turned away from and acknowledges the one his shaman grandfather prays he’ll return to. Tallbear’s new case uncovers a mysterious plane wreck discovered in the Superstition Mountains that turns out to stir both his life decisions and ultimate direction. Along with his troubled FBI partner, Brad Hanley, they face a myriad of obstacles in their journey to the truth.

A Seed for Murder delves into the timely and gripping subject of genetically modified crops, exposing a tangled web of deceit and greed that is ripped straight from today's headlines. As with all of Parr's works, the truth may not be apparent at first glance, making for yet another thriller.

Dieter Webber, a former Jump Armor pilot, lost his war. Years later as a broken ex-pat, half a galaxy away, the former combat pilot is haunted by the ghosts of the war and looming debts to organized crime. An encounter with an Android, Reis, serves as an invitation from his former commander to a reluctant escape: Mercenary work in her company, Valkyrie LLC.

Joey Mancuso, Father O'Brian, and the rest of the team are back for their ninth hard-boiled tale. Consistently working out of their Lower Manhattan Irish pub and office. This time, there is no client. Instead, Mancuso has been sucked into this series of senseless murders by personal invitation. A text with the location and an invite to come over. It appears like random killings of homeless people at subway stations. But there is nothing unexpected about the texts.

When a man, partially disguised with a medical mask and large sunglasses, approaches Joey Mancuso and asks him to solve his murder, Mancuso is skeptical. But when a series of murders begin to happen, Joey and his wife, former FBI Special Agent Marcy, find themselves embroiled in a dangerous web of deceit, smuggling, and theft.

The saga continues when Los Angeles PI Rollo Michaels runs afoul of the law, as he tries to protect his family and himself from the wrath of an old nemesis. Things get complicated when a blackmail case he is working on ends up in kidnapping and murder. Add to that a surprise from Rollo’s past demanding his immediate attention.

When PI Rollo Michaels does a few “favors” for a gangster friend of his late father, he becomes entangled in the strings of Mafia puppeteer “Big Vinnie” Costello. While on a New York family vacation with his daughter, son, and fiancée, Rollo comes under the scrutiny of the FBI. His subsequent beatdown and arrest for assaulting an FBI agent is witnessed by his children, drawing the unrelenting wrath of his ex-wife, and yet another wedding postponement by his fiancée.

Her boots slip with every step she takes along the snow-packed road. Frigid air burns her nose but does nothing to cool her anger. Her boyfriend just left her on the side of the road, all alone. When she fails to come home, her parents make a frantic call to the police. All they find are her footprints in the snow and her discarded purse in the ditch.

Like many truckers, Ron Hartman drives long hours far from home, trying to make ends meet. Chasing the dream of owning his own big rig, he has lost the thing he loves most; his wife and son have moved out of his run-down trailer house. Desperate to win his family back, with his own truck and schedule, Ron is an ideal target for recruitment by major drug smuggling rings. When his truck breaks down and someone offers him a load that seems too good to be true, he is too desperate to heed the warning signs.

In the tight-knit community of Lorain, Ohio, a whirlwind of horror swept through as unsettling allegations surfaced - a trusted bus driver and her alleged companion were accused of shattering the innocence of preschoolers in the respected Head Start program. The verdict? Life-long prison sentences that would cast a shadow over a community, and initiate an untiring quest for truth.

Fred always saw himself as more important than the other fish in the lake. After all, he was much bigger, faster, and smarter than them all. But when he decides to crown himself as king, things go a little different from how he had planned. He ends up on the surface. But what is the lesson he is meant to learn before the time runs out?