Jake Smith Mystery Series

  It is New Year's Eve in nineteen sixty-nine and Southern California's normally placid climate is experiencing a bitter winter cold snap. It is certainly  not the weather for murder.   The strange unknown weapon constitutes the perfect crime. Bodies are stacking up faster than chips in a winning hand of high stakes poker.  The only thing piling up faster is the ever growing list of suspects.    Incompetent San Diego Police Detective Jake Smith is in charge of the investigation. His life is spiraling out of control both professionally and  personally. The obnoxious detective's attitude certainly is not benefitting either areas of his tenuous existence.   He is either ending up the squad room hero or miscreant.

  Jake Smith is back. After his firing from the San Diego Police Department as a seasoned detective, he is starting his life over at the bottom in the Fayetteville, Arkansas force.   As a rookie patrol o?cer, Smith receives the crappiest assignments and ends up on the local university campus in the midst of anti-war riots, drugs, and murder.   The move certainly was not good for our man. He struggles on the job, makes too many enemies and ?nding love does not  come easy.   You will not be able to turn pages fast enough to keep up with the action.

  A steamy hot August in San Diego, California. The rotting body of an immigration attorney, Diego Ortiz found with a Mexican stiletto protruding from his chest.    Disgraced Jake Smith is back from Arkansas and set up a private investigation service. He has been keeping a low profile, not wanting to confront his old nemesis, SDPD Detective Stephen Lyle.    Now fruitless with the death of his only client. Smith has no choice but to insert himself in the investigation. It is a race to bring him down. The Federal alphabet agencies, the SDPD, the Melendez Drug Cartel or someone else is all in the running.    Diego Ortiz has a long list of enemies. So many adversaries. So many want his empire. No one knows his past. No one knows his real name or even if he is a licensed attorney.    The controversy piles up. The mystery runs deep. From the underbelly of San Diego to the streets of Tijuana, nobody is above suspicion. The chases, the tortures, the arrests, the clues are all there.    Can you figure it out before the final chapter? 

  The North County flower fields are a full rainbow of colors, set majestically on the hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The only factor spoiling the perfect  postcard setting was the murder of Charles Westway.   Why was he beat to death with a hardwood Louisville Slugger, when the second body found, a sheriff's deputy, was shot? The beloved local news anchor's  darkest secrets unfolded.   The mystery expanded from San Diego to the streets of Hollywood and beyond, both physically and emotionally. Numerous policing agencies and Private  Investigator Jake Smith vied to solve mounting crimes and body counts.   Hamilton-Adams Investigations' boss hired to by the jailed prime suspect's Chicago attorney to find the truth. He knew his client was lying, but to what extent, murder? Smith needed to locate the Tijuana housekeeper to learn what she witnessed at the station's previous Christmas party. Can he find her? Will her  observations exonerate or bury Smith's client?   Westway's neighbors told doubtful accounts of the night of the killings. Nothing added up. Nothing made sense. The police investigations stalled and the only  hope to save the station manager left up to Jake Smith and his team.  

Myth or Truth  A young girl goes missing in the wee hours of the morning after a night of trick or treating. If the urban legend believed,  Angel Snatcher struck anew, this time using San Diego as his stalking grounds.   Special Agent in Charge, Egan Davis, led the FBI hunt for the elusive wraith from state to state for decades. The local detectives chase little Connie Rocha' s abductor, a porcelain figurine left on her bed, the only clue. Their sights on the slow-witted teenager living  across the street with his grandmother. . Private Investigator Jake Smith conned into the investigation pro bono, much to the disgust of his wife and business partner. . He, the only one  believing the girl alive, will stop at nothing to fulfil his promise and find her. Dead or alive is yet to be seen. . Rift with twists, lack of evidence, dead suspects, personal obstacles, and professional conflicts, the Rocha case runs cold. No investigation was simple,  for Jake Smith and Angel Snatcher, all but lost, was no different. .

Private investigator Jake Smith is sometimes a hero, sometimes vigilante, but always a thorn in the cops' side. His nemesis, Detective Max Marsh, Marshmallow, as Smith refers to him, is bent on driving him out of San Diego.   With Andrew and Leslie Howell's remains discovered in their garden graves by their busy body neighbor, Jake inserts himself in the middle of the case, bringing Smith and Marsh to loggerheads.   Hamilton-Adams Investigations does not have a client, driving his wife's disgust with her husband's refusal to quit interfering. She declines to understand him, trying to redeem himself over long-forgotten accusations.   During clashes with his wife, Jake makes a mistake with an old friend. Now, can he live with the consequences? Virginia is the best researcher in the business. Is it possible for Jake to solve the murders without her?   Grave Garden is a riveting thriller of survival, redemption, obsession, and love. But unfortunately, Jake appears to love his job more than his wife.