The Boxer Series
BELOW THE BELT
This is the first novel in the series and introduces the two co-protagonists: Sean O’Conner retired boxer and Cindy Matasar, a criminal investigator with the public defender’s office who also free-lances for the private bar. Sean is asked to look into a new boxing gym in Portland that his friend, Maybelle Preacher, has doubts about after her grandson joins it.
SUCKER PUNCHED
Cindy is assigned as the investigator to what would appear to be an open and shut case of a wife-beater killing his wife, but Cindy and the public defender lawyer assigned to it, Janet Bowers, find odd facts that point to their client being framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Since their client is a retired professional boxer, they ask Sean to look into his past to see if there is anything in it which would point to someone with a motive for framing their client for murder.
THROWING IN THE TOWEL
Sean is asked by a boxing trainer to find out why a promising teenage boxer has suddenly become morose and depressed. Before Sean gets around to doing so, the young man is found dead; an apparent suicide after having jumped off a building. Motivated by guilt, Sean convinces Cindy to leave the public defender’s office and join him in a private investigation agency with the death of Damiyun Walker as their first case.
SAVED BY THE BELL
Sean’s impression of their potential client is that he is a spoiled only child of an overly protective mother, both given to exaggeration and hyperbole. The young man in question had been fired from his job as a night janitor with a cleaning firm and after insisting on talking to his manager about it, ends up facing criminal charges for making threats. His mother wants Sean and Cindy to check with some witnesses that her son had not acted the way his ex-employer had described, and they were just out to get him because they were all a bunch of Nazis.
Book Reviews
Ok, I’m seriously impressed. This was GOOD! And I can say I didn’t see the twist at the end coming until near the end, which honestly surprised me. Well done.
– MaxDisaster
Review for Murder By The Sea
This story’s mystery was a good one, with plenty of clues and sufficient tension. I realised that there were two different crimes at play but the author successfully kept things ambiguous until the end…
– Jo
Review for Murder By The Sea
I did not see that ending coming! That was an unexpected twist. BJ is a complex character. An ex-con, convicted for murder, she goes to the town where her sister was killed. BJ wants to settle the estate and find out what happened to Cindy, her sister. She does some sleuthing on her own, traveling to different places to garner clues, and making new friends who are willing to brainstorm and help her…
– Karen
Review for Murder By The Sea