Matson Case Files Series

"Zaragoza leads the reader through a horrific murder plot with both speed and efficiency. A good murder mystery but also a good social issues story."   New York City's Police Chief, Robert Matson, reflects on his first murder case when, as a newly discharged Korean War veteran, he returns home to Harlem to find a color line blocking his admission to the police academy. Matson takes interim work as a janitor, but his skills in the military police come to light when Bumpy Johnson, Harlem's unofficial mayor, pimp, and drug czar, seeks Matson's help tracking down the killer of his prostitutes, while city officials turn a blind eye.   Detective Harvey Smith joins his former military partner to unravel the mystery behind these heinous murders. In the process, they draw on some of the city's historical figures in crime fighting and forensics to find incriminating evidence in a non-tech era when dogged grunt work processes the bits and pieces that convict criminals. Matson uses his knowledge of psychology to profile the killer, and the search for him leads Smith and Matson to New Jersey and back again. Finally, in a dramatic set-up, they nab the killer.   To show his appreciation, Bumpy sends Matson a gift, a beautiful blonde named Sissy, and the mixed-race couple fall in love and marry, despite the social stigma of the 1950s.   The sub-plot reveals the discrimination Matson faces on a day-to-day basis, professionally and personally. Yet with his intelligence, skills, and hard work, he proves his worth that eventually sees him move up in the ranks, thanks in part to Smith who genuinely values Matson as a friend and partner.

"Set in 1950s NYC, the hero fights crime amid racial tension and the rise of Nazism. A fascinating story, packed with suspense and plenty of intrigue."   Matson's forensic boss, O'Neal, a crusty Scotsman, sends Matson to the crime scene in Manhattan, where he learns that three men, all with the same name, are murder victims, suspiciously in a three-block radius of each other.  He hooks up with his former partner, Harvey Smith, and the two cops plug into the world of spies, Nazis, and Operation Paperclip.   In their investigation into the three murders, all revealing ties with Hitler, the two cops go to the FDA's animal research facility, site of the three murdered men's work on biological warfare off Lyme, Connecticut, namesake for Lyme disease.   Who murdered whom becomes a twisted riddle of love and covert operations—and protection of government secrets. Will the truth ever be known? Matson and Smith, in their search for the answer, venture off to the FDA's Animal research facility, site of the three Nazi scientists' work on bacteriological warfare off Lyme, Connecticut.   In the familiar sub-plot to the Matson series, he continues to advance in the police ranks, despite ongoing discrimination during the pre-Civil Rights era of the late 1950s. Sissy, Matson's wife, begins her education in earnest toward becoming a highly respected psychologist.

New York Detectives Matson and Smith, assigned the Chinatown beat, soon find themselves in the midst of mutilations and murders, the nefarious deeds of Ti Chu Cum, leader of a Chinese Mafia-like organization bent on carving out control of NYC Chinatown.   With Inspector Han from Hong Kong, whose family had been murdered by the same man, the partners face increasing threats, forcing them to relocate their families out of state. The search for the ever-elusive Ti Chu Cum, the green-eyed black Chinese monster, takes the threesome on a wild roller coaster ride. A gripping story with surprise conclusions.

NYC Detectives Matson and Smith receive the case of Mattie James, once a high-end prostitute, retired and peddling on a street corner, murdered and dumped in an alley. Matson's wife Sissy, whom he had rescued from the street life, says Mattie's shabby, unkempt appearance doesn't sound like the Mattie she knew who enjoyed living in luxury.   While the detective duo investigates Mattie's murder, New York City experiences the chaos of the Civil Rights Movement, the murder of Malcolm X, and reverberations of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination in Memphis, TN. With riots on street corners an everyday occurrence, one ray of hope for Matson comes from Searle, a white college student who arrives in the Big Apple in a show of solidarity with suppressed black folks.   In the midst of keeping peace and rendering justice, Matson refuses to relegate Mattie's murder to the cold case bin. His keen interest in solving her murder leads him on a wild goose chase that involves finding her source of White China, pure heroin that he found in her peddler's satchel, plus sorting out her high-priced clients suffering from syphilis, and coordinating with the CIA's drug trafficking arm operating in Southeast Asia.   When Smith queries why the endless dogged pursuit ten years in the making, Matson tells him that everyone – queen or prostitute – deserves the same treatment by the men in blue.

In another trip down memory lane, New York Chief of Police Robert Matson remembers the 1980's case of Oscar Ortiz, a Cuban-born national who arrived with the first wave of the Mariel boatlift people by order of Castro. Some of the boat people arriving with refugees were known criminals and the mentally ill who settled down in Miami, New York, and other American cities.   Ortiz's case hit the headlines when he protested being denied his religious freedom. The New York Times story portrayed him as a victim having been prosecuted because of his Afro-Cuban religious beliefs, with no mention of his gruesome murders, extortions, and rapes, all committed in the name of his occult rituals.   Matson wondered why the Times story never gave Ortiz his due and explained his crimes; instead making him into some kind of victim deserving of reverence.   Detective Matson and his partner, Smith, had their work cut out for them to track down Ortiz and render justice for the young women he kidnapped and murdered. Matson has a moment when he explores his own beliefs while exploring the practices of Caribbean-African religions brought to these countries by slaves.

In the Matson's Case series, New York City's Police Chief, Robert Matson, reflects on some of his earlier cases from the 1950s. As a as a newly discharged Korean War veteran, he returns home to Harlem to find a color line blocking his admission to the police academy. Matson faces discrimination on a day-to-day basis, both professionally and personally; yet with his intelligence, skills, and hard work, he proves his worth that eventually sees him move up in the ranks.   MATSON'S CASE NO. 2   Matson's forensic boss, O'Neal, a crusty Scotsman, sends Matson to the crime scene in Manhattan, where he learns that three men, all with the same name, are murder victims, suspiciously in a three-block radius of each other.  He hooks up with his former partner, Harvey Smith, and the two cops plug into the world of spies, Nazis, and Operation Paperclip.   In their investigation into the three murders, all revealing ties with Hitler, the two cops go to the FDA's animal research facility, site of the three murdered men's work on biological warfare off Lyme, Connecticut, namesake for Lyme disease.   Who murdered whom becomes a twisted riddle of love and covert operations—and protection of government secrets. Will the truth ever be known? Matson and Smith, in their search for the answer, venture off to the FDA's Animal research facility, site of the three Nazi scientists' work on bacteriological warfare off Lyme, Connecticut.   MATSON'S CASE NO. 3   New York Detectives Matson and Smith, assigned the Chinatown beat, soon find themselves in the midst of mutilations and murders, the nefarious deeds of Ti Chu Cum, leader of a Chinese Mafia-like organization bent on carving out control of NYC Chinatown.   With Inspector Han from Hong Kong, whose family had been murdered by the same man, the partners face increasing threats, forcing them to relocate their families out of state. The search for the ever-elusive Ti Chu Cum, the green-eyed black Chinese monster, takes the threesome on a wild roller coaster ride. A gripping story with surprise conclusions.   MATSON'S CASE NO. 4   NYC Detectives Matson and Smith receive the case of Mattie James, once a high-end prostitute, retired and peddling on a street corner, murdered and dumped in an alley. Matson's wife Sissy, whom he had rescued from the street life, says Mattie's shabby, unkempt appearance doesn't sound like the Mattie she knew who enjoyed living in luxury.   While the detective duo investigates Mattie's murder, New York City experiences the chaos of the Civil Rights Movement, the murder of Malcolm X, and reverberations of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination in Memphis, TN. With riots on street corners an everyday occurrence, one ray of hope for Matson comes from Searle, a white college student who arrives in the Big Apple in a show of solidarity with suppressed black folks.   In the midst of keeping peace and rendering justice, Matson refuses to relegate Mattie's murder to the cold case bin. His keen interest in solving her murder leads him on a wild goose chase that involves finding her source of White China, pure heroin that he found in her peddler's satchel, plus sorting out her high-priced clients suffering from syphilis, and coordinating with the CIA's drug trafficking arm operating in Southeast Asia.   When Smith queries why the endless dogged pursuit ten years in the making, Matson tells him that everyone – queen or prostitute – deserves the same treatment by the men in blue.