Scott Drayco Series

Named Best Mystery in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards and a Shamus Award finalist for Best Indie P.I. Novel Simmering resentment in a small coastal town. A missing manuscript. A dark family secret. Scott Drayco isn’t a typical detective: a former concert pianist with synesthesia, he turned to law enforcement when a violent attack put an end to his music career. After Drayco inherits a rundown Opera House in a Virginia seaside town following a particularly brutal case, he just wants to arrange a quick sale for the unwanted “gift” while nursing his battered soul in a peaceful setting near the shore. Those hopes are shattered when a dead body turns up on the Opera House stage, a mysterious "G" carved into the man's chest. With himself a suspect in the murder, Drayco digs into very old and very dangerous secrets to solve the crime and clear his name. But first...Drayco must dodge a wary Sheriff, hostility over coastal development, and the seductive wife of a town councilman—before the tensions explode into more violence and he becomes the next victim. EDITORIAL REVIEWS: "Lawson's protagonist is greatly compelling." - Publishers Weekly Booklife Prize "Worth putting on your reading list." - The Library Journal "The storyline here is nicely structured, and creatively ties together two murder mysteries, which occurred decades apart. The small town setting is ideal, the lead character engaging, and the supporting cast interesting and diverse. Overall, a solid start to this series." - Omnimystery News "Lawson uses the gothic features of the abandoned Opera House to great effect, creating an atmospheric background for the crimes and the solving of them, all of it accompanied with music that’s almost like another character. The pace never sagged and it kept me enthralled." - Long & Short Reviews

A mysterious music puzzle. A murdered coed. Explosive secrets. Three years ago, Scott Drayco left the FBI after an incident involving his partner, Mark “Sarg” Sargosian. Now a freelance crime consultant, Drayco often helps law enforcement on cases, but he never imagined his estranged former partner would turn up on his doorstep, pleading for Drayco’s help. A coed at an elite private college in Washington, D.C., has been murdered, and the victim’s friend, Sarg’s own daughter Tara, might be the next target. The killer left behind a puzzling music code at the crime scene, and Drayco soon learns he has two things in common with the murdered girl—a music background and synesthesia. The case takes an even stranger turn after a second murder and a second music code, with signs pointing toward a possible ritualistic killing. Then, Drayco himself starts receiving coded messages ...

Crime consultant Scott Drayco is in the middle of a thorny case in Washington, D.C. involving murder victims who were all wheelchair-bound. Then out of the blue, he gets a worried call from a friend on Virginia's Eastern Shore about an attack on an innocent disabled girl. Working once again with Sheriff Sailor and Deputy Nelia Tyler, Drayco discovers almost everyone believes the girl's attack was an accident. But he begins to suspect otherwise when he crosses paths with a badly disfigured man and the man's enigmatic Goth son, as well as one of the smoothest and most dangerous figures Drayco has encountered in his career. Meanwhile, his conflicted feelings toward the soon-to-be-divorced town councilman's wife, Darcie Squier, continue to simmer under the surface and threaten to undermine his focus and cloud his judgment. And he's well aware he needs to keep his faculties razor-sharp if he's to solve the riddle of whether the cases in D.C. and the Eastern Shore are linked—or is he dealing with not one monster, but two?

Can a piece of music be cursed? When a young marine biologist is found dead of suicide, his father can't believe he took his own life and hires crime consultant Scott Drayco to prove it was murder. But what of the strange song found with the young man's body—the same song linked to a piano sonata that led to a wave of suicides in Hungary in the 1930s? As Drayco digs deeper, he finds even more unusual aspects of the case not easily explained: the victim’s missing cellphone; his “Gang of Five” friends and their interest in the Akashic Records spiritual philosophy; and the gun used by the victim that was mysteriously stolen from a friend’s car. Drayco fears a tragic incident from his own past may be clouding his objectivity. After all, the facts point to suicide, case closed. But when Drayco starts suffering from depression himself after playing the sonata, can he really be sure of what’s real and what’s imagined? The Suicide Sonata is the fifth installment in the acclaimed Scott Drayco mystery series, a finalist for the Shamus, Silver Falchion, and Daphne Awards. PRAISE FOR THE SCOTT DRAYCO SERIES: "Worth putting on your reading list." - The Library Journal "Lawson's protagonist is greatly compelling." - Publishers Weekly Booklife Prize "Lawson’s book was so good, I read it twice from beginning to end." - Readers Favorite Reviews The complete chronology of the Scott Drayco series for those who enjoy reading in order is: Played to Death Requiem for Innocence Dies Irae Elegy in Scarlet The Suicide Sonata Sign up for BV Lawson’s Mysteries in Crimetime newsletter at bvlawson.com and receive a FREE ebook!

NOTE: This is a sequel to book #3 in the Scott Drayco series, DIES IRAE, which should be read before ELEGY IN SCARLET if you want to avoid spoilers! What if a large part of your past turned out to be a lie? Crime consultant Scott Drayco is already in the middle of a possible career-ending legal battle when word comes that his mother, who disappeared 30 years ago, is very much alive — and charged with murder. With Drayco’s father washing his hands of the matter and police convinced the woman is guilty, everyone tells him he should just walk away from the case and let the chips fall where they may. Except, Drayco finds he can’t leave it alone and is obsessed with uncovering the truth: Is his mother really a killer? Where has she been all these years? And why did she suddenly leave her husband and children to vanish without a trace? Investigating the murder victim’s colleagues, Drayco learns there are plenty who wanted the man dead, including a shadowy stalker who seems to have a mysterious connection to Drayco’s mother. As he wades hip-deep into secrets, lies, and cons, he begins to question if the case is all just part of an elaborate scam ... where the only one being fooled is Drayco himself. The Scott Drayco mystery series has been honored by the American Independent Writers, Maryland Writers Association, named Best Mystery in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and been a finalist for the Shamus and Silver Falchion Awards. The complete chronology of the Scott Drayco series for reading in order is: Played to Death Requiem for Innocence Dies Irae Elegy in Scarlet PRAISE FOR BV LAWSON'S NOVELS: “BV Lawson has created a memorable character in Drayco, a concert pianist turned FBI agent, turned crime consultant. He also has the fascinating condition of synesthesia, which not only adds a mysterious depth to his character it is integral to the plot.” Big Als Books & Pals “... Kept me guessing until the very end. I’d recommend this book to experienced mystery readers who enjoy wrestling with skillfully placed hints that don’t easily reveal their secrets.” – Long and Short Reviews “The storyline here is nicely structured, and creatively ties together two murder mysteries, which occurred decades apart. The small town setting is ideal, the lead character engaging, and the supporting cast interesting and diverse.” – Omimystery News “Now this story was close to brilliance ... The writing was fluent and the story intriguing, and I loved the end.” – IHeartReading Reviews “Lawson’s book was so good, I read it twice from beginning to end...The citizens of Cape Unity are as diverse and multi-layered as any person living in the large cities, and Lawson portrayed them splendidly.” – Reader's Favorite Reviews “A nice tight mystery in a realistic setting. Totally enjoyable.” – Terrie Farley Moran, author of the Read ’Em and Eat Mysteries

How would you solve your own kidnapping? And what if the reason behind it was even stranger than you could ever imagine? When detective Scott Drayco is abducted and given a mysterious puzzle to solve, his predicament is bizarre enough. But after he's released and one of his kidnappers is killed—a man who allegedly died five years ago—what began as a puzzling situation turns into an even stranger quest. Meanwhile, Drayco's father, Brock, has a new girlfriend with a shady background, and the timing of the relationship feels far too coincidental. When an even shadier connection also appears to be involved in Drayco’s abduction, the stakes become deeply personal. Feeling stymied at every turn—and unable to get a song the dead man was obsessed with out of his head—Drayco wonders if he’s too close to the case to be objective. Who was the mastermind behind the kidnapping, and what were their real motives? And was the death of the one kidnapper an accident ... or murder? Drayco does know one thing for certain: he has to get to the bottom of the mystery soon, or more people could die ...

Some secrets refuse to stay buried... When Scott Drayco's ex-girlfriend begs him to prove her rich fiancé, Harry Dickerman, is innocent of murder, Drayco's torn; he's suspicious of Harry's motives for wanting to marry a much younger woman, but on the other hand, the man seems to be a paragon of virtue. The police think it's an open-and-shut case — the victim was Harry's ex-wife, killed in Harry's home with his own letter opener, and only Harry's prints were on the murder weapon. But as Drayco digs deeper, he starts to find cracks in that "open-and-shut" case and investigates whether corporate espionage was involved and how a shady attorney figures into the mix. Most puzzling of all, why was the victim living in an mysterious, out-of-the-way commune for Wall Street refugees? And why does the commune seem to be less about peace, love, and brotherhood and more about drugs, sex, and blackmail? With help from his former FBI partner, "Sarg" Sargosian, Drayco uncovers a possible Russian connection that may be key to the mystery. But as he plunges deeper into a cesspool where everyone seems to be guilty of secrets and lies, he's not sure who he can trust ... or whether a deadly dance with the devil will be his undoing.