Checkmate by Blaire Howard
Mystery
Date Published:
February 16th 2016
Checkmate is the fourth standalone novel in the
Harry Starke series of mysteries.
Angela Hartwell lay dead in the shallow waters
beside the golf course. There was not a mark on her, yet she had been
strangled. How could that be?
Once again, it’s up to Harry Starke to find out.
The investigation takes him into a world he’s very familiar with, a world of
affluence, privilege, and corruption.
To solve the mystery, he must deal with three
murders, a beautiful used car dealer, her lovely twin sisters, and a crooked
banker. Not to mention Burke and Hare,
two crazy repo men who will stop at nothing to protect their employer’s
interests. There's also the matter of an ingenious, sadistic killer. But
nothing is ever quite what it seems....
Harry Starke is a hard-boiled private detective,
an ex-cop, a tough guy from the right side of the tracks with finely tuned
senses, good instincts, and friends in high places. He’s single, successful,
well educated, and yes, he will hurt you if he needs to.
~ * ~
EXCERPT
She walked around the desk,
sat down, reached over and punched a number into the intercom, “Max. If you
wouldn’t mind. Please come in here.”
A few seconds later, the
door opened and in walked what could only be described as the Terminator. Max
Tully was about as tall as me, but there the similarity ended. He must have
weighed at least 250 pounds, but his body fat was probably less than five
percent. He was a body builder, a powerhouse, probably on steroids. He was so
muscled his arms wouldn’t hang by his sides.
“Mr. Starke is leaving now,
Max,” Ruth said. “Please show him out.”
I stayed where I was. “I
have a few more questions, if you don’t mind,” I said, reasonably.
“I do mind. Max?”
He took a step toward me.
“You heard the lady,”
“Back off, Fatso,” I said,
even more reasonably than before, so I thought, as I got to my feet and turned
to face him. “Fatso,” probably wasn’t what I should have called him, but I
learned a long time ago that the best way to handle a tough guy was to throw
him off his game before he got started. Anyway, he went for it. He growled, and
took another step forward. I took a step backward.
“I said, back off.”
He grinned, exposing a set
of white but crooked teeth, and raised his right hand to grab my shoulder.
That’s the trouble with big strong guys like him. They think their size and
strength are all they need. This one, by the self-satisfied look on his face
also thought he was better than me.
Fat chance, Blutto.
He didn’t even see it
coming. I grabbed two of his outstretched fingers—the pinky and the one next to
it—and bent them back. He howled in pain. His knees bent. His arm crooked
upward toward his shoulder. His eyes closed. His head went back. Ruth sat
staring, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.
“Down, boy,” I said, as I
slowly forced him to his knees. I sighed and shook my head as I increased the
pressure until he was down on his back.
“All you had to do was ask
nicely, and I would have left,” I said quietly. “You didn’t need to bring in
the heavy—and that’s all he is, Ruth: heavy.”
I pulled on Max’s fingers
and he rose into sitting position. I bent down, put my mouth close to his ear.
“Max, I’ll say this just
once, so listen up. I’m going to let you go now. When I do, you’ll stand up and
go back to whatever hole in the wall you crawled out of. If you don’t—if you
decide you think you can ambush me—I’ll blow away one of your kneecaps. I’ll
put you on sticks for the rest of your days. Understand?”
He nodded. He was in too
much pain to even speak. I let him go and stepped back, and pushed my jacket
back to expose the grip of the MP9 under my left arm. He got up and staggered
out of the office, his right hand clasped in his left, close to his chest.
~ * ~
AUTHOR BIO
Blair Howard is from a small town in England, near
Stratford-upon-Avon, on the edge of the English Cotswolds. He is Kentucky
Colonel, an honor bestowed upon him in 2008 by the then Governor of the
Commonwealth of Kentucky, Steven L. Beshear. Until 2015, he wrote sweeping
historical epics, and is the author of five historical novels. In July of 2015
he decided to try his hand at writing mystery novels, thus we have Harry
Starke. The first in the series, Harry Starke, was released in mid-September
2015. The second novel, Two for the Money, was released October 19 the same
year, Hill House, in mid-December 2015, and Checkmate in February 2016, and
there are more to come.
Blair is the author of more than 40 books and more than
4,500 magazine, newspaper, and web articles. His work has appeared in many
national and international publications, including Delta's Sky Magazine,
PHOTOgraphic magazine, The Mail on Sunday, The Walking Magazine, Petersen's
Hunting Magazine, The Boston Herald, The Detroit Free-Press, The Anchorage
Times and many more.
Author links:
Website: http://www.blairhoward.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blair.howard.77
Twitter: @bcwhoward
Blog: www.blairhoward.com/blog
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KHQS30
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