Showing results by author "Blair Howard" in All Categories

Greed, revenge, jealousy, money, love, hate are all motives for murder, and all in a day’s work for Lt. Kate Gazzara.

Commodore Richard Morian and the crew of the Avenger find themselves at the forefront of the battle against the Blues. As they face off against unimaginable foes and navigate treacherous political waters, they must rely on their wits, their courage, and their trust in each other to survive. With new technology, advanced weaponry, and a fierce determination to protect their home planet and the galaxy at large, the Avenger is ready to take on almost any challenge.

Kingsley Lynch fell to her death from a seven-story, downtown rooftop garden. Was it an accident, suicide, or was she pushed? The two detectives assigned to the case decided she jumped. Her husband, an influential city councilor disagrees, and six weeks later Kate Gazzara is assigned to reinvestigate.

It began when an FBI informant was brutally gunned down outside a soccer stadium. A tactical nuclear weapon has gone missing somewhere in the Middle East and is thought to have been smuggled into the United States by a small group of Iranian terrorists intent on chaos and destruction. The target? Unknown, but the FBI’s local director is convinced that it’s the Sequoya nuclear plant and that the clock is ticking. Convinced that the threat is real and that his only link to the terrorists is Harry Starke’s nemesis, Shady Tree, he turns to Harry for help.

A case 35 years cold. No witnesses, suspects, or leads. Two detectives who won’t let go. My name’s Harry Starke. I’m an ex-cop turned private investigator. It was a rainy Monday morning in June 2012 when Peter Sheffield walked into my office and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Two weeks in sunny Florida; all expenses paid. The catch was I had to solve a 35-year-old cold case. Sheffield’s parents were killed in a particularly nasty hit-and-run accident. The driver and the pickup truck that hit them were never found.

When prominent defense attorney Madison Lombardi drops dead on the street outside her office of a perceived heart attack, no one pays much attention . . . Except for her husband. When a second attorney, her law partner, drops dead a week later in almost the exact same spot, more people begin to pay attention, including police chief Wesley Johnston. Homicide detective Kate Gazzara, much to her dismay, is assigned what appears to be little more than a case of coinciding medical events. However, appearances can be deceiving, and Kate remains unconvinced by the notion of mere coincidences.

It was April 1, 1998, when the bodies of two teenagers, a young fella and his girlfriend - both high school seniors - were found among the trees on a lonely road just inside the city limits. The bodies had been stripped and left for the wild animals to...well, you get the idea. The cops had a good idea who the killer was, but they never could prove it, so the case went cold until April 1, 2012, when local DA, Larry Spruce, asked me to take a look at it.

On a dark day in April 1865, a band of former Confederate guerrillas slaughtered more than 40 Comanches, most of them women and children. This began a six-month reign of terror along the Santa Fe Trail as Comanche chief, White Eagle, took his revenge. The US Cavalry was assigned the task of tracking White Eagle and his warriors down. Lieutenant Colonel Ignatius O'Sullivan's orders were to either bring them in or kill them.

A secret plot to start a war. Two old enemies who must work together to foil it. Under any other circumstances, hired assassin Cassandra Wu would be trying to kill her partner. But that’ll have to wait. Right now, they need to stop a war. After escaping US custody in a deadly battle that leaves three FBI agents dead and another wounded, Wu is kidnapped by The Peacemakers, a Deep State organization dedicated to achieving peace on Earth. Unfortunately, to bring that about they must initiate WWIII and Wu must assassinate an impossible target: the Russian president.

A vicious killer is on the loose in the small but affluent bedroom community of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. The local police are ill-equipped to handle a murder investigation. So they call on the expert: the tenacious and dedicated Detective Kate Gazarra of the Chattanooga PD. The killer is careful, leaving no obvious evidence and no motive. Lieutenant Gazarra must pursue high-profile suspects, navigate interference by the city’s elite, and get inside the mind of the killer. All while training in a new partner and appeasing the formidable Chief Johnston.

A brutal murder. An impossible crime. Why did Genevieve have to die? Who murdered her? Caught between two worlds, one where she didn’t belong, the other she couldn’t give up, Genevieve committed the ultimate deception and married into a world of wealth and privilege and it cost her her life. Kate Gazzara’s most difficult case, a mind-bending riddle. A gripping, fast-paced thriller that will keep you listening long into the night.

Three more gripping thrillers in the Amazon best-selling Lt. Kate Gazzara series: Cassidy, Georgina, and Nicolette.

Brandon Beck hanged himself, or did he? Was it suicide or cold blooded murder? On a cold dark night in February, Harry Starke runs into someone he hasn’t seen in almost 25 years. The man has a problem. He asks Harry for help. Harry turns him down, and thus becomes the last person to see Brandon Beck alive. Did Beck hang himself? Was he murdered? Either way, why? Harry Starke, now the prime suspect, vows to find out.

On a cold morning in October, 1987, Ohio State Patrol Officer Dan Walker finds an odd box on a quiet, county road. Twenty-five years later, in 2012, and more than 600 miles away, a young woman vanishes without a trace and another is found dead from what appears to be an overdose. In 2015, street-smart Lieutenant Kate Gazzara is suddenly transferred to the Cold Case Squad and assigned her first case. But as she painstakingly goes over the file she discovers a connection to all three incidents. Is there a serial killer on the loose, one who has been killing for almost three decades?

During the last few days of the Civil War, a company of Confederate raiders rode into the small Kansas town of Elbow. There they raped, pillaged and murdered among the local populace, thus triggering a chain of events and a chase that extended for more than 1,000 miles across the grasslands and mountains of Kansas and the deserts of New Mexico.

Cassie Morgan was just 17 years old when she died at the hands of a sadistic killer. Homicide Detective Harry Starke caught the case, and he knew right from the beginning that it was going to be a bad one, and he was right. Too many clues, too many suspects, too many bodies, and a police chief more interested in his career than justice for the victims. For Harry, it was the last straw, and it had been a long time coming.

When a farmer discovers a man’s in the passenger seat of his car, Captain Kate Gazzara is called in to lead the murder investigation. A simple carjacking gone wrong? That’s what it looks like but, as we all know, looks can be deceiving. So, Kate probes deeper and quickly discovers that her victim isn't the first, but only the latest in a string of murders going back over five years.

An elite force of private military contractors. A ragtag band of aging war heroes and civilians. It began with a simple kidnapping. It ended in an all-out private war. In Harry Starke’s world, nothing is ever quite as it seems. His wife is lying in hospital in a coma. His best friend and business partner is not who he says he is. Once again Harry says never again, but when his intellectually disabled uncle is kidnapped and becomes a pawn in a deadly game of cat and mouse.

There’s a serial killer on the loose! It’s not Kate Gazzara’s first rodeo, but this one is…different. Four young women, all with their throats cut, all with different backgrounds. What’s the connection? Is there one? And then there are the feathers. What do they mean? Kate is under pressure to solve this one quickly, but there are no leads and no suspects, just…the feathers.

There’s something strange going on at Clearwater Psychiatric Hospital. Director Dr. Norman Gill has a list in his desk drawer. He keeps it locked away. It’s for his eyes only. The list has seven names, with seven dates. Seven deaths in 11 months. Harry Starke will have to sharpen his skills for this one. Is there a lunatic loose in the hospital? A staff member, a patient? Does someone else have a list, and if so...how many names are on it?