Michael Z. Lewin

What must a man do when the world suddenly becomes unrecognizable because of a worldwide sickness? He does whatever it takes to keep his daughter, his grandson, and himself alive from one day to the next. But at the same time he can’t give up hope of finding a better life for them all. Set in an unnamed American city, this novel follows a small family from one surprising event to the next. There are good times and many hard ones when survival is the primary goal. The first chapter of this novel appeared as a story in the Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine January-February 2022 edition. Book Review 1: “In the several days during which Mr. Lewin allows us to share his long waking hours, Leroy Powder becomes exhilaratingly alive.” -- The New Yorker, about Night Cover Book Review 2: “Adele Buffington… conducts herself like a mensch. She shows courage… [and] uses her brains and initiative…” -- Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times, about And Baby Will Fall Book Review 3: “Confessions is a joy and I’m sure it will entertain everyone lucky enough to read it, bishops, priests and born-again Christians included. Rabbis too. There’s such good sense and wisdom at the heart of this wonderful romp through heaven and earth. The brilliance is that while we are treated to such fun with a God learning to be streetwise, the story is rooted in good theology. I hope He will return.” -- Peter Lovesey, Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America; Diamond Dagger winner of the Crime Writers Association, about Confessions of a Discontented Deity

Whatever It Takes

Underdog

The Edgar Award–nominated author of the Albert Samson mysteries returns with “another first-rate, fast-moving police procedural” featuring Lt. Leroy Powder (Publishers Weekly). Nineteen years in Night Cover for the Indianapolis PD and suddenly Lt. Leroy Powder gets a new job description. The surly cop may have honed his instincts for solving crimes, but he can’t tell if heading the Missing Persons Bureau is a promotion, demotion, or something in between. And then he gets a new partner thrown at him. Sure, Sgt. Carollee Fleetwood is a decorated cop who took a bullet for a fellow officer, but all Lieutenant Powder sees is a woman rolling around in a wheelchair. And there’s no time to be sensitive and diplomatic when there’s a job to be done. As Powder and Fleetwood test each other, they never lose sight of the case at hand—no matter how strange the details. Case by case, from missing loves to missing lovers, the two seasoned detectives slowly gain each other’s grudging respect. And no matter how vicious the jokes get, neither will ever crack a smile. Hard Line is the 2nd book in the Lt. Leroy Powder Novels, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Hard Line

Peter Lovesey

Liza Cody

An Annual of Crime Stories

3rd Culprit

A Crime Writers' Association Annual

1st Culprit

Indianapolis PI Albert Samson takes on a hospital, a pharmaceutical company, and the FBI in this “tough and clever” mystery (The New Republic). After his slowest summer ever, struggling and desperate private eye Albert Samson places an ad in the local paper, offering his services at a bargain price. Instead of new business, he gets an eviction notice. But his luck seems to change when Dorothea Thomas calls with an unusual tale of woe. Her brother, John, a chemist and pharmaceutical salesman, has been in a coma since a lab explosion seven months ago. Dorothea hasn’t been allowed to visit her brother in an experimental wing of the hospital—and she needs Samson to find out why. The case gets him tangled up with the FBI and leads him straight to the black heart of the pharmaceutical industry, where secrets only hide more secrets. The smart-mouthed midwestern detective who “is always good, wry company” returns in this witty crime novel in the critically acclaimed Albert Samson series (Kirkus Reviews). The Silent Salesman is the 4th book in the Albert Samson Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

The Silent Salesman

Indianapolis PI Albert Samson gets his license back just in time to take on a high-profile case in the latest from the Shamus Award–winning author of Missing Woman. After a confrontation with a cop cost him his PI license, Albert Samson is thrilled to be reinstated. Within hours, he has two new clients and can leave his day job at his mother’s diner behind. But the real payday arrives when he is brought onto the defense team for a man accused of being Indiana’s most notorious serial killer. Of all the private eyes in town, why have the lawyers handpicked Samson for the biggest case to hit Indianapolis in decades? With cash in hand, Samson starts investigating. And what he finds isn’t pretty . . . “Bemused chuckles follow closely on the heels of horrified gasps” in in this humorous crime novel that concludes the adventures of the charming, smart-mouthed midwestern detective (Booklist). Eye Opener is the 8th book in the Albert Samson Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Eye Opener

Lt. Leroy Powder has moved to the Missing Persons department after years on nights. What an opportunity to improve departmental procedures and provide a better service to the people of Indianapolis. If only the Indy Police Department would staff the place properly. Instead they send him a wheelchair-bound sergeant. OK, she's a public hero because she took a bullet for her partner and has refused to retire. So she's tough, but she's still on wheels. How does that qualify her to find a missing wife or identify a woman with amnesia? In Hard Line, winner of the 'Falcon' in Japan, Powder makes do. But he doesn't like it. And he doesn't have to be quiet about the way Missing Persons is being short-changed. And, meanwhile, a series of cases becomes more complicated than they first appear to be. As does Powder's relationship with his son.

Indianapolis private eye Albert Samson is hired to find out why a devoted sister is not being allowed to visit her brother in hospital. A salesman and researcher at a pharmaceutical laboratory, he's been in a coma and in intensive care for seven months after an accident at work. His sister's been told a visit would put him at risk. But how can that be? Samson tries to find out, and he too gets stonewalled. But wouldn't his work be so much simpler if his clients actually told him the truth? Even so, the nest of intrigue expands to questions of murder, and even the FBI.

“A smoothly written private‐eye story” and Edgar Award Finalist: Indianapolis PI Albert Samson stirs up a wealthy family’s secrets (The New York Times). It’s a slow afternoon for Indianapolis private detective Albert Samson. He’s just awoken from an office doze when a new client walks in. Sixteen-year-old Eloise Crystal recently discovered that her blood type doesn’t match either of her parents’, and she wants Samson to find her biological father. Skeptical, but one hundred dollars richer, Samson begins some preliminary digging into the past of one of the most respected family names in Indiana. What he unearths is the kind of dirt that makes people do desperate things—and it thrusts him into a shifting world of lies, old money, and murderous secrets. A beloved series by a Shamus Award–winning author, Ask the Right Question introduces the smart-mouthed midwestern detective “who’s always good, wry company” (Kirkus Reviews). Ask the Right Question is the 1st book in the Albert Samson Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Ask the Right Question

It wasn't bad enough that a ten-year-old kid had beaten him at basketball in the morning. Next Albert Samson was being badgered by a humourless prospective client. Was he, in fact, the cheapest private detective in Indianapolis? Did his daily rate include expenses or did he try to claim those on top? Expenses were indeed extra, but Samson was still a bargain and he got the case. The client's son-in-law had been charged with murder. But she didn't want him exonerated - he had certainly pulled the trigger. What she wanted was evidence she could use to make her daughter see what a dead loss her Vietnam vet husband was. Sure, he'd been a hero over there, but this was Indianapolis, and real life, and now. Real life is simple, right? Not this time, not when Samson discovers that his questions do not lead to satisfactory, or safe, answers.

The Way We Die Now

A dowdy woman hires private eye Albert Samson to locate her college chum. But is she missing or has she just run away from her husband? A stop-start case takes Samson out of his Indianapolis comfort zone into Southern Indiana where he picks his way through intrigues, lies, and lures and where he tangles with a hostile police force. Everyone has something to hide. Wouldn't it be wonderful if things did turn out to be as advertised, at least now and then. However here he scrapes the deceptions aside and works his way to the bottom of a tantalizing puzzle in a novel that was adapted for television in Japan.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

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