Hawaiian Noir: COVER REVEAL: SPLINTERED LOYALTY

 Hawaiian Noir: COVER REVEAL: SPLINTERED LOYALTY

FFB Review: The Splintered Paddle by Mark Troy

For this really and absolute final Friday in May 2019, I remind you of The Splintered Paddle by Mark Troy. I first told you about this one five years ago in the review below. I remind you of this excellent book today. I also suggest you check out the full list of reading suggestions over at Todd Mason’s blog.

Private Investigator Ava Rome has no idea in the beginning that she is being hunted. She has no idea at all a man from her distant past is in the islands watching her every move. Fantasizing over and over again what he is going to do to her once he finally gets her alone. His name is Norman Traxler and he is coming for her--- after he eliminates whatever she cares about a chess piece at a time.

Ava's latest client, sent by Moon Ito, is a young woman named Jenny Mordan. Battered an assaulted by a corrupt cop named Ron Nevez she wants and needs Ava's help. The fact that Jenny is a freelancer in the world's oldest profession is not a factor for Ava Rome. Jenny is defenseless and Ava's business is to protect the defenseless as it was under Kamehameha the Great before the annexation of the islands by the United States in 1898.  That first law of King Kamehameha, the law of the splintered paddle, is still ingrained in the islands and its people and serves as the very personal mandate of what Ava Rome does each and every day. The defenseless will be guaranteed from harm--period.  Using your badge as a weapon is considered official suppression and Ava's isn't about to put up with that.

That issue isn't the only thing she isn't about to put up with in this complicated mystery featuring multiple story lines. Written by Texas author Mark Troy who spent a number of years in Hawaii before moving to Texas, this new series features an intense take no prisoners heroine committed to solving mysteries from the past and present despite the many complications involved with both. Ethical and principled, willing to go it alone if and when she has to, Ava Rome always advances and never retreats. That might be something that comes from her family and the way she was raised.

Featuring a strong and interesting cast of supporting characters, this complex read features four separate and distinct story lines that gradually interweave as readers are slowly filled in on Ava's often difficult past. A past that has driven many of her choices through her life. Choices that have created at least some of the increasingly dangerous situations she now finds herself in today.

Second place finisher at the 2012 Claymore Awards at Killer Nashville, The Splintered Paddle: An Ava Rome Mystery is one of those rare books that pulls you deep inside a world far from home right from the beginning. It isn't all sundrenched beaches, cool waters, and happy days in paradise. Ava, also seen in the very good novella The Rules, knows something about the dark undercurrents at work in the 50^th state in the union and is more than ready to protect the defenseless.

The Splintered Paddle

Mark Troy

http://marktroymysterywriter.com/

Five Star Publishing (division of Cengage)

http://www.cengage.com

June 18, 2014

ISBN# 978-1-4328-2859-2

Hardback

304 Pages

$25.95

ARC supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014, 2019

Monday Mystery: Tough Dames-- Violet McDade and Nevada Alvarado

 Monday Mystery: Tough Dames-- Violet McDade and Nevada Alvarado

Mark Troy and the Female Private Detective: Grace "Redsie" Culver (1934 -1937)

In recent weeks, Texas author Mark Troy has considered Carrie Cashin and Sarah Watson for his series on the Female Private Detective. This time around Grace "Redsie" Culver is his subject.

 Grace "Redsie" Culver (1934 -1937)

Sometimes secretary, sometimes operative, Grace Culver worked for "Big Tim" Noonan of the Noonan Detective Agency. Written by Roswell Brown, she appeared in twenty issues of The Shadow Magazine from 1934 to 1937.  She is young, single, and attractive. Her dominant features are her red hair and sherry-colored eyes, which the reader is frequently reminded of. She is known as "Red" or "Redsie" to Big Tim.

Grace is smart, competent, brave and independent, though perhaps shading into recklessness at times. In the first story we learn that gangsters killed her father, but they could not kill the "detective spirit" which was part of the Culver blood. Whatever "detective spirit" is, it gets Redsie into a lot of cases up to her neck, and at some point it gets a lot of guns pointed at her. Sometimes she waxes philosophically about it.

"Grace always had known that Death played tag with her profession. Her own father had gone out that way, fighting, with his boots on. She might have been content to follow him."

Content she's not. It's the thrill of the chase that motivates her to leave her newspaper job and join Big Tim's outfit.

"The tracking of malefactors, the swift action of cornering them and the thrill of  bringing them in for justice, were as much in her blood as is speed in that of a finely-bred race horse."

If the Culver blood drags her into trouble, it also drags Big Tim and her colleague Jerry Riker along with her. Sometimes one or both of them has to save her, but only after she's solved the case. At other times, Grace does the saving of Tim and Jerry.

The stories are more medium-boiled than hard-boiled. There is plenty of action and violence, but little of the cynicism one expects from a hard-boiled story.

Grace doesn't always carry a gun, but everybody else seems to. When she finds herself in a predicament, she has to resort to whatever weapons happen to be handy—paperweight, kitchen knife, pan of hot grease, even a lipstick tube. More than likely, however, she will get her hands on a gun as the action escalates, and she will use it effectively.

Red takes as good as she gets. She gets punched, kicked, knocked out and tied up when she is not getting shot at. She leaps onto speeding cars or drives them, herself, in wild chases.

Grace has a fondness for double chocolate sodas and for the landlady from whom she rents a room, Maggie Moody. Jerry Riker wishes for some fondness from her, but she seems oblivious to Jerry's advances. To his credit, he never gives up trying to get her out on a date.

"Jerry saw an opening and dove into it. They came few and far between with a fast -action girl like "Big Tim" Noonan's red-headed aider-and-abetter. But from long habit, young Riker kept on trying." Just when it seems she might give in, the phone rings with another case.

The stories are competently written and still hold up well in spite of the years. Roswell Brown was a pseudonym for Jean Francis Webb who contributed plenty of stories in a variety of genres. He wrote gothic romance novels under a woman's name. There is some speculation that Webb might be a woman, though the consensus seems to be that he was male.

The Grace Culver stories, as with most stories from that era, are hard to find. However, six of them have been compiled into an ebook, Fox Red, by D.E. Cunningham. It is available for purchase from the Barnes & Noble Nook Store (ISBN: 1588737130)

Mark Troy ©2015

Mark Troy is the author of The Splintered Paddle, The Rules, Pilikia Is My Business and Game Face.  His website is at http://marktroymysterywriter.com

LRHallBooks: Summer on the Water, Mark Troy, Season 2, Episode ...

LRHallBooks: Summer on the Water, Mark Troy, Season 2, Episode ...: Welcome Mark to this third Friday in June! I hope it's sunny where you are.  It certainly looks sunny in your picture. I think a...

Mark Troy and the Female Private Detective: Carrie Cashin (1937-1943)

Please welcome friend and author Mark Troy to the blog. On the 1^st and 3^rd Wednesday each month Mark will bring another perspective on mysteries here. Something that is good for all of us as the mystery field is a wide one with a rich and deep history. I am looking forward to these posts…

Carrie Cashin, 1937 - 1943

The early 1970's saw a big change in hard-boiled private eye fiction when women PIs entered the field.

Right?

Wrong!

Hard-boiled Janes have walked the mean streets nearly as long as hard boiled Dicks and have acquitted themselves just as well as their brothers.  So it comes as a surprise when a commentator such as John Semley, writing in the New York Times, "The Death Of The Private Eye" makes no mention of women except as femme fatales and minxes. In his view, "The hard-boiled gumshoes were men . . . "

So in upcoming posts we'll give the Janes their due. First up is Carrie Cashin.

Carrie Cashin was the creation of Theodore Tinsley, a prolific author of crime and western fiction. She appeared in forty-four stories from 1937 to 1943 in Crime Busters and Street and Smith's Mystery Magazine. Her appearance on the cover of Crime Busters was enough to spike sales of that issue and Street and Smith came very close to giving her a magazine of her own.

Carrie began as a department store detective, but then started her own agency, the Cash and Carry Agency. She ran it on the sound principle of payment up front, cash only. The agency's motto: "You pay, we deliver." Deliver, she does. She is so successful, she can charge a whopping fee of a thousand dollars for her services.

In the best hard-boiled tradition, Carrie does not let little things, like the law, get in the way of her mission. Breaking and entering, robbery and kidnapping are all part of her skill set. Carrie is not one to enter a door when a window will do. Her weapons are a small gun, which she carries in a thigh holster, and a purse with a secret compartment.

In her first story, "White Elephant," 1937, we find her on a ledge outside a 15th floor hotel room, ready to break in and recover (steal?) a stolen elephant amulet. Recover it she does, but returning to her own room she finds her client dead, killed with her nail file, and the police at the door. Out the window and over the roof she goes, down into the subway where she dodges a train and makes it back to her office.

Carrie's stories are breathless adventures. She rushes here and there, encountering bodies and leaving some herself. She's not all brawn and athleticism, however. She solves the crimes with her brains and wins hearts with her "softly rounded beauty."

Carrie is aided in her exploits by a good-looking, but somewhat dense, "He doesn't know a clue when he sees one," guy named Aleck "Handsome Aleck" Burton. Aleck fronts for the agency because Carrie believes most people are biased against female detectives. Shades of Remington Steele! When a client comes in, Carrie takes the role of a secretary, taking notes and asking the probing questions — for clarification, of course.  Don't expect Handsome Aleck to come to Carrie's rescue or get her out of jams. This is Carrie's show all the way.

She finds the clues, tackles the bad guys, and delivers justice on her own.

Carrie's stories are hard to find. When issues of Crime Busters pop up on eBay, they usually fetch $200 or more. Your best bet is to sample her exploits in Hard-boiled dames: Stories featuring women detectives, reporters, adventurers, and criminals from the pulp fiction magazines of the 1930s, edited by Bernard A. Drew, St. Martin's, 1986. It's worth a visit to your local library.

Mark Troy ©2015

Mark Troy is the author of The Splintered Paddle, The Rules, Pilikia Is My Business and Game Face.  His website is at http://marktroymysterywriter.com

Via WriteKnit-- Book Review: The Splintered Paddle – Heart Pounding Hawaiian Mystery

Book Review: The Splintered Paddle – Heart Pounding Hawaiian Mystery

Via Mark Troy-- Black and White Friday (FREE BOOKS)

As posted elsewhere....

Let's turn Black Friday into Black and White Friday, that is, a day for reading instead of shopping. What could be better than a comfortable chair, a leftover turkey sandwich, and a good mystery? 

To get it going, I am making my novella, The Rules, available for free download to Kindle from today through Sunday: http://amzn.to/1iljnye  And my collection of short stories, Game Face, will be available free on Smashwords during the same period: http://bit.ly/1HEqcWN 
 
The Rules is an Ava Rome mystery. Game Face is a collection of all the Val Lyon short stories.

Mark Troy
metroy@mac.com
http://marktroymysterywriter.com
The Splintered Paddle, an Ava Rome Mystery from Five Star Publishing

Mark Troy's Giveaway

As the author posted elsewhere earlier today...

Two lucky readers will each win a hard cover copy of The Splintered Paddle at the Neverending Book Giveaway: http://www.thebigthrill.org/giveaway/. Just go to the site and answer the question about The Splintered Paddle. The winners will be drawn on November 22. If you are going to Bouchercon, you can win a copy at my author focus session, Friday, 1:30, Harbor C.

I hope everybody enters and good luck.

Mark Troy

The Splintered Paddle, an Ava Rome mystery, from Five Star Publishing

http://marktroymysterywriter.com

metroy@suddenlink.net

Mark Troy's THE SPLINTERED PADDLE

As Mark has posted elsewhere this evening....

The Splintered Paddle will be included in the issue of The National Examiner that hits the newsstands on Monday, October 6. The article will include a giveaway. So pick up the mag in the checkout line of your supermarket to find out how to get a hardcover copy of The Splintered Paddle.

Mark Troy
The Splintered Paddle, an Ava Rome mystery, from Five Star Publishing
http://marktroymysterywriter.com
metroy@mac.com

Review: "The Splintered Paddle: An Ava Rome Mystery" by Mark Troy

Private Investigator Ava Rome has no idea in the beginning that she is being hunted. She has no idea at all a man from her distant past is in the islands watching her every move. Fantasizing over and over again what he is going to do to her once he finally gets her alone. His name is Norman Traxler and he is coming for her--- after he eliminates whatever she cares about a chess piece at a time.

Ava's latest client, sent by Moon Ito, is a young woman named Jenny Mordan. Battered an assaulted by a corrupt cop named Ron Nevez she wants and needs Ava's help. The fact that Jenny is a freelancer in the world's oldest profession is not a factor for Ava Rome. Jenny is defenseless and Ava's business is to protect the defenseless as it was under Kamehameha the Great before the annexation of the islands by the United States in 1898.  That first law of King Kamehameha, the law of the splintered paddle, is still ingrained in the islands and its people and serves as the very personal mandate of what Ava Rome does each and every day. The defenseless will be guaranteed from harm--period.  Using your badge as a weapon is considered official suppression and Ava's isn't about to put up with that.

That issue isn't the only thing she isn't about to put up with in this complicated mystery featuring multiple story lines. Written by Texas author Mark Troy who spent a number of years in Hawaii before moving to Texas, this new series features an intense take no prisoners heroine committed to solving mysteries from the past and present despite the many complications involved with both. Ethical and principled, willing to go it alone if and when she has to, Ava Rome always advances and never retreats. That might be something that comes from her family and the way she was raised.

Featuring a strong and interesting cast of supporting characters, this complex read features four separate and distinct story lines that gradually interweave as readers are slowly filled in on Ava's often difficult past. A past that has driven many of her choices through her life. Choices that have created at least some of the increasingly dangerous situations she now finds herself in today.

Second place finisher at the 2012 Claymore Awards at Killer Nashville, The Splintered Paddle: An Ava Rome Mystery is one of those rare books that pulls you deep inside a world far from home right from the beginning. It isn't all sundrenched beaches, cool waters, and happy days in paradise. Ava, also seen in the very good novella The Rules, knows something about the dark undercurrents at work in the 50^th state in the union and is more than ready to protect the defenseless.

The Splintered Paddle

Mark Troy

http://marktroymysterywriter.com/

Five Star Publishing (division of Cengage)

http://www.cengage.com

June 18, 2014

ISBN# 978-1-4328-2859-2

Hardback

304 Pages

$25.95

ARC supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014

Via Mark Troy: Read an Excerpt from "The Splintered Paddle"

It is not Sunday, but then again, this is not here either so what the heck. Texas author and good guy Mark Troy who currently has offered the very good THE RULES for free at Amazon also has the first three chapters of his soon to be released book The Splintered Paddle online at his website http://marktroy.net/

The book also happens to be in my TBR via an ARC I got awhile back. Looks to be a good one.

So, go to Mark's site and and then surf over to the "Read An Excerpt From The Splintered Paddle." I didn't know this was up until tonight as he just mentioned it on one of the lists I am on. 

By the way, Mark is the guy who also wrote the very good Game Face and Pilikia Is My Business. If you have not read his work, get familiar as he is really good.

FREE BOOK ALERT--- THE RULES by Mark Troy

You may remember me mentioning this book before when it came up for free and I told you about it then. If not, Earl Staggs reviewed it here and Mark contributed a Sunday Sample here. The bottom line is THE RULES is a good one and ties into his novel The Splintered Paddle coming this summer. It is also FREE one more time.

As posted elsewhere earlier today....

Beginning tomorrow,  my short story, The Rules, will be free in the Kindle Store.  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FGTBLW6.

Mark Troy

metroy@suddenlink.net

http://www.marktroy.net

The Rules, an Ava Rome mystery, now available in the Kindle Store

The Splintered Paddle, coming in June 2014

Senior News--December 2013 Column

For some time now I have been writing a monthly book review column for the Senior News newspaper. The Senior News is aimed to the 50 and over crowd with news relevant to seniors regarding various issues, humor pieces, and my review column among other things. The newspaper is a giveaway at doctor offices, stores, etc. and can be received by mail via a paid subscription. There are multiple editions across the state of Texas and therefore there is some fluctuation in content in each edition.

My column every month focuses on books of interest to the Texas audience. Therefore the books selected for the column, fiction or non-fiction, are written by Texas residents, feature Texans in some way, or would have some other connection to the Texas based readership. At least two books are covered each month in the short space I am given.

Below is/was my December 2013 column with the addition here of the relevant book covers…

The Rules

Mark Troy

ISBN# 978-0-98480813-7    

E-Book

50 Pages (estimated)

$0.99

In The Rules Ava Rome is a protection specialist. She keeps her clients alive while doing whatever is necessary to stop the threat. To protect her clients she has to know everything about them up front. The fact that she knows her latest client, “Paul” is lying about his name and possibly other things is not a good sign. The issue with the name could be for good reason. According to the father, a wealthy and powerful businessman most likely from somewhere in South America, the threat against his son is very real and he is willing to pay top dollar for someone of Ava’s skills. To be paid very well, all she has to do is keep him alive and not break any of her rules.

Much easier said than done.

Texas author Mark Troy has a real winner here with the book and his new character Ava Rome. Featuring plenty of action, interesting characters, and a heroine readers will love, The Rules is a powerful mystery as well as a preview of the next summer release The Splintered Paddle from Five Star Publishing.

Update from the author posted elsewhere earlier today--“To send 2013 on it's way, my novella, The Rules, will be free on Kindle starting tomorrow until New Year's Eve.”

Missing Dog Tags: An American GI in North Korea

Kenneth Eaton

Patience Press

ISBN# 978-1-892220-13-4

Paperback (also available as an e-book)

300 Pages

In Missing Dog Tags: An American GI in North Korea author Kenneth Eaton recounts what it was like to be a prisoner of war in North Korea. His story of his capture while serving as a corporal in the 9^th Tank Company of the 2nd division, U.S. Army, begins early in 1951 with a Chinese attack on his unit. After his tank was destroyed, he was forced to abandon it. In the confusion of battle he was soon captured while on foot as were other soldiers.

Despite three failed escape attempts, starvation, and various horrors he endured, Kenneth Eaton survived and came home to be reunited with friends and loved ones. In a blow by blow detailed fashion this book recounts the experiences of Kenneth Eason during the Korean War. As such, the book pulls no punches as the story comes out. Those who expect a politically correct read with sanitized language regarding the enemy would be best to look elsewhere.  Corporal Kenneth Eaton bluntly tells it like it was for him in Missing Dog Tags: An American GI in North Korea.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2013

Shop on Amazon - Save on Select Titles - Up to 50 Off

Mark Troy's Latest Giveaway

As posted elsewhere earlier this week....
 

Today I received the cover of The Splintered Paddle form Five Star. It's the first Honolulu Private Eye, Ava Rome novel, coming in June 2014. But you don't have to wait until June to read Ava's exploits. The Rules is a short story available now on Kindle. Now for the giveaway. You can view the cover of The Splintered Paddle on my website, http://www.marktroy.net. If you leave a comment about it, I will send you a Kindle edition of The Rules. It need not be a lengthy comment, just a word or two. Leave an address where I can email The Rules to you.

Mark Troy
http://www.marktroy.net
metroy@mac.com
The Rules, an Ava Rome mystery, now available in the Kindle Store
The Splintered Paddle, coming in June 2014

Mark Troy's Gift

As posted elsewhere earlier today....

In honor of Veterans Day I am giving copies of my latest novella, The Rules, to current and former members of our armed services and their families. The Rules is an ebook for the Kindle. You need a Kindle or a Kindle app in order to read it. To get your copy, send me a note to mark@marktroy.net. There is no time limit. Spread the word.

Thank you for your service and I look forward to sending you a copy.

Mark Troy
mark@marktroy.net
http://www.marktroy.net
The Rules, an Ava Rome mystery, now available on Kindle
http://www.amazon.com/The-Rules-ebook/dp/B00FGTBLW6/
The Splintered Paddle Coming in June 2014 from Five Star Publications

Guest Reviewer Earl Staggs Reviews "The Rules" by Mark Troy

It is always a pleasure when Earl Staggs makes a guest appearance here on the blog. Not only is Earl a good friend, he is a two time Derringer award winning author with many short stories as well as novels to his credit. His most recent novel is the thriller featuring Tall Chambers titled Justified Action.  Tall Chambers is also featured in the just released “mini-novel” Rescue.

THE RULES

by Mark Troy

Ilium Books ISBN 978-0-9848081-3-7

Copyright © 2013 Mark Troy

Short Story Ebook  - $.99

Reviewed by Earl Staggs

EXCELLENT WRITER, IRRESISTIBLE HEROINE

You’ll love Ava Rome in Mark Troy’s story, The Rules.  You’ll also love spending time in Hawaii where the story takes place.  Mark knows the islands well and transports you there with skilled writing.

Ava Rome is sharp and she’s tough. In her profession, she has to be.  She protects people.  If your life’s in danger, hire Ava.  You know she’ll do her job because she prides herself on never breaking the hard and fast rules she set for herself. 

When Ava takes on the job of protecting a shadowy businessman’s son, however, sticking to her rules becomes a problem. Part of the problem is that besides being sharp and tough, she’s beautiful.  The young man she’s protecting wastes no time letting her know he’s attracted to her.   Ava is also human, and in spite of herself, finds herself in danger of breaking her most rigid rule.

This story moves at a fast pace and you’ll see how a professional in Ava’s line of work goes about doing her job.  All the while, suspense and tension build to a breathless, exciting climax. As a deadly storm rages outside, an even deadlier one erupts inside. Something completely unexpected happens, and Ava’s problem becomes keeping herself alive.

I highly recommend The Rules.  You can’t go wrong when Mark Troy writes about Ava Rome and Hawaii.

Earl Staggs ©2013

Rescue, Justified Action, Memory Of A Murder and more at your favorite bookstore and online at http://www.earlwstaggs.wordpress.com

Mark Troy (author of "The Rules") Needs Your Help

Mark has been posting the below on various lists the last few days so I am posting his message here. If you contact him, please tell him I sent you. 

Signature drinks. The top sleuths have them. For Spenser, it's beer. For Travis McGee, it's Plymouth Gin. Ava Rome needs a drink of her own, so I'm offering a Kindle novella in exchange for a drink recommendation. Go to my website, http://www.marktroy.net and leave a drink in the comment box of the top entry. If it's a mixed drink, leave a recipe. If a brand name or label, tell me something about it. If you leave your email address or send it separately, I'll send you a Kindle edition of The Rules, the first Ava Rome mystery. Maybe Ava will like it, too.

Mark Troy

Http://marktroy.net

The Rules, an Ava Rome mystery now available on Kindle

http://www.amazon.com/The-Rules-ebook/dp/B00FGTBLW6/

The Splintered Paddle, coming in June 2014 from Five Star Publications

Sample Sunday: Excerpt from "The Rules" by Mark Troy

This week Texas author Mark Troy shares an excerpt from his new mystery The Rules. The synopsis below is followed by an excerpt from the book:

Ava Rome is a personal protection specialist. She follows three rules: First, a professional never gets into a relationship with her principal; second, a professional never leaves her principal; and, third, a professional never calls attention to herself or her principal.

Ava takes on the job of protecting Paul, the son of a wealthy and powerful man from a country where murder and kidnapping are means of doing business. Paul convinces her he is not like his father and has no wish to continue in the family business.

Paul is a few years younger than Ava and very attractive to women. How attractive becomes apparent when another woman makes an advance on him. The incident draws attention to Ava and Paul, violating her third rule. The incident also forces Ava to recognize that she, herself, is attracted to him. In order not to violate her first rule, she decides she must violate her second rule and leave him. Paul, however, operates under a different set of rules and won't let her leave.

The Rules

by

Mark Troy

Rule Number Three

Paul was not his real name. He could be Paolo or Pablo, or, more likely, something entirely different. A person who wants to assimilate will anglicize his name, but a person who wants to hide will change names completely.

Ava Rome is my real name. I protect people who need to hide.

I met Paul and his father in the house they rented in an exclusive area of Honolulu.

"My father is a wealthy and powerful man in our country, Miss Rome," Paul said. "He has powerful enemies."

They didn't name the country and I'd agreed not to ask. I guessed a South American nation. They spoke either Spanish or Portuguese. Not being a linguist, I wouldn't know which.

Paul spoke good English, lightly accented. Later I learned he had spent most of his life in exclusive private schools, insulated from his father's business.

He sounded better than he looked and he looked incredible. Average height, wavy dark hair, perfect teeth to go with his gorgeous features, and the lithe build of a soccer player. A striker, maybe, a position requiring explosive speed. I figured him about mid-twenties. He wore an open-neck sport shirt and chinos. He rocked the chinos.

You start thinking like that, you should leave.

But I didn't. I was drawn to the gold cross below his throat, framed by the open collar of his shirt. It was small and delicate such as a woman would wear. I wondered if the cross had belonged to a woman in his life. His mother, perhaps. If so, I liked him for it.

I didn't like anything about his father.

"Who are your enemies?" I asked.

Paul translated the question into his own language for his father who dismissed it curtly.

"My father says that is not for you to know."

"If I'm to protect you, I need to know the threats."

"If there's a threat," Paul said.

"You don't believe you're in danger?"

"My father has become more than a little paranoid," Paul said. "Who wouldn't, given the life he lives?" He shrugged and flashed me a sheepish grin. "Between you and me, the danger is mostly in his imagination."

I scanned the lanai. At the ocean end, two men played cards at an umbrella table. A third man leaned against the bar in the living room. A fourth man maintained a watch near the front door, out of my sight. He'd been about to pat me down when Paul intervened. Four men, one type. Dark slacks, white sport shirts, cheap hair cuts. They were bulked up, but not muscled-up. Their handguns printed under their shirts. They'd do a good job against a normal threat, but wouldn't last long against professionals.

They wouldn't last long against me.

"These aren't imaginary thugs," I said. "Paranoia often has a basis in fact."

"The laws in our country are weak and ineffective. To stay in business, my father has to be strong. Murder, kidnapping, these are the means employed by his competitors. My father does not wish it, but it is what one must do."

Mark Troy ©2013

Ava Rome returns in The Splintered Paddle, coming in June 2014

Review: "The Rules" by Mark Troy

In The Rules Ava Rome is a protection specialist. She keeps her clients alive while doing whatever is necessary to stop the threat. To protect her clients she has to know everything about them up front. The fact that she knows her latest client, “Paul” is lying about his name and possibly other things is not a good sign. The issue with the name could be for good reason. According to the father, a wealthy and powerful businessman most likely from somewhere in South America, the threat against his son is very real and he is willing to pay top dollar for someone of Ava’s skills.

All Ava Rome has to do is attend classes and other functions with Paul while he works on his master’s degree in renewable natural resources. Paul only needs one semester in Hawaii and then he goes back home. Ava will be paid very well for the job with half now and half at the end of the semester if Paul is still alive. All she has to do is keep him alive and not break any of her rules.

Much easier said than done.

Readers familiar with the work of Texas author Mark Troy and specifically the excellent Pilikia Is My Business and other books will recognize Ava Rome as very similar to Private Investigator Val Lyon. Both women are very good at their jobs while dealing with the occasional personal temptation as well as men who don’t take them seriously. While the former can generate internal conflict, the answer to the latter is often a simple hands on demonstration of reality. Ava Rome is not about to forget her gun in the cookie jar at 3 AM and she certainly isn’t about to trust everything she is told.

Featuring plenty of action, interesting characters, and a heroine readers will love, The Rules is a powerful mystery packed into a short story. It also gives readers a glimpse of Ava Rome who will be back next summer in the mystery novel The Splintered Paddle from Five Star Publishing.

The Rules

Mark Troy

http://www.marktroy.net/
Ilium Books

September 2013

ISBN# 978-0-98480813-7    

E-Book

50 Pages (estimated)

$0.99

Material supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review. Tomorrow, here on the blog, you will have the opportunity to read an excerpt from The Rules as part of the Sunday Sample series.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2013