FUNERAL PARTY (Mystery, Murder, and Martinis #1: On The Run)

By Paul L. McMurray

(Adult Content; Approximately 154,000 words plus an excerpt from THE WILDING, book #2 in the series). Tavern owner and former bagman for the Chicago Outfit while he was a cop, Zak O’Neill is forced to do one more job for his old Mob boss: take the gangster’s girlfriend out on a date to see if she can be trusted. Of course she can’t—but for an entirely different reason than suspected—and Zak is forced to shoot his way out of a set-up and flee, leaving behind his tavern, his house, and the girl he’s in lust with. Driving far north into Wisconsin to hide, low on cash and gas and lost, Zak winds up at a desolate saloon and all too soon wonders if he wasn’t better off back in Chicago, hit-men be damned. Besides the fact that he’s a hated Flatlander in Cheesehead-land, there’s the hulking but too-short Freddy who’s always looking for a fight, the WANTED fax with Zak’s face that brings those darned bounty hunters, the mysterious private club that hosts a funeral party complete with strippers dancing around the casket, and finally the ultimatum: Die here, or head into dangerous territory to deal with gangs, guns, and a lot of missing money.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul L. McMurray
• Release date: Aug 26, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465764867

Paul L. McMurray

Paul McMurray grew up on the SW side of Chicago (one block from Midway Airport) and then lived in nearby suburbs. He stayed out of serious trouble thanks to his strict-but-kind mom and a top-ranking relative on the CPD. He worked a lot of jobs, including selling insurance in the “inner city”, where he had a loaded gun pointed at his head twice (by undercover cops, not residents) but didn’t get shot, and learned to look out for roving packs of feral dogs. He also remembers gratefully the many good people there who checked the windows first so he didn’t get robbed and/or his butt kicked. He then joined his family in owning and running the 2nd largest private campground in SE Wisconsin (at the time and may still be), and still writes about camping mishaps at scoopjackson.net, where his alter-ego resides. He travels frequently to Chicago for more "research" on Zak and Freddy capers, which usually involves Italian beef sandwiches and beer. And, of course, White Castles.

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