Michael Pool

Throwing Off Sparks: A Riley Reeves Mystery by Michael Pool is the first book in what promises to be a highly entertaining series. There are numerous references to an earlier case which was the focus of the story, “Weathering The Storm,” in The Eyes of Texas: Private Eyes From The Panhandle To The Piney Woods anthology edited by Michael Bracken that came out last year. While it is not necessary to have read that short story before reading this novel, it would not hurt as those events still have personal repercussions in this novel set more than a year later.

Most of Riley Reeves cases are missing persons and surveillance cases. Divorced and stubborn, she could have easily slid into police work following her legendary father. She is not good with rules so doing private investigator work is her thing as she goes about her life while her brother sits in prison. She works out of a small office building on the square of downtown Tyler that she inherited from her dad and lives in the family home after mom passed. There are wrinkles to both situations that add depth to character and setup conflicts best read instead of being detailed here.

She needs a case as the bills are mounting. The man and woman who walk into her office that morning clearly have money. The wife also clearly has attitude, so she is going to be problematic. They have a problem and seem to want her help. At least the man does, but the wife is another thing.

Paul and Lee Anne Wallace have a 17-year-old daughter, Carmen. Somebody started playing small pranks on her and things seem to have escalated to full on stalking behavior. Somebody is putting nasty notes on her car as well as occasionally vandalizing it. The same person is also apparently coming by in the middle of the night and tapping on her bedroom window. Other little things have been happening as well in recent weeks. Mom, Leanne, is sure it is a neighbor boy who has a bit of a reputation. Dad, Paul, is not so sure he is the one doing it. While they do not agree as to who is doing it, the parents are in agreement that they want and need it stopped.

There is no evidence that the neighbor kid is the one doing it. In fact, there really is not much evidence of anything so the Sheriff’s department can’t really help. For any parent such a situation would be of concern, but their daughter has major life-threatening medical issues so that makes things worse.

While Riley Reese is not sure she can really do anything that has not been tried already, she agrees to come look around the property and talk to their daughter. Once she does that, if she thinks she can help, they can all decide on a plan of action and other details.

Before long, Reese has her hands full with their case and a host of other problems. Things get very complicated very fast in this fast pace mystery. Throwing Off Sparks: A Riley Reeves Mystery by Michael Pool is clearly a foundational book for the series. That means there is a lot of backstory to the various primary characters, especially Riley, so as to set up for the reader how she perceives her world and the people in it. That backstory provides nuance and depth to the characters and does not slow down the read at all because it is weaved in so well. If the coming series follows the precedent here, the series should be really good.

I received an eBook ARC of this read awhile back from the author with no expectation of a review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020… (mehr)

In this novel of crimes, both petty and not-so, Michael Pool takes you from the laid-back atmosphere of Colorado, where marijuana growing, possession, and sale is legal to rural Teller County in East Texas where it definitely is not. The county’s official policy is strictly anti-pot, rigorously enforced by its long-time sheriff, Jack Gables, who is especially diligent if he isn’t getting a cut of the action.
Transplanted Texans Cooper Daniels and Trevor Davis, close friends from childhood, have been living in Colorado for years. They think of their Texas drug deal as just going home for a spell, but home has changed, and they’ll have to dance a pretty lively two-step to stay out of jail and, maybe, out of the cemetery.
Cooper believes it’s worth the risk of selling his organic crop to the sketchy Texas drug dealer, “Sancho” Watts, because he’s vowed this deal will be his last. He’s turning a new leaf and has sworn to acquire himself a legitimate career to please his pregnant girlfriend. If he doesn’t shape up, she’s leaving him.
Cooper and Davis seem like good-natured stoners, but Watts is a wild man. Some time before the story starts, Watts sold a psychedelic drug to the grandson of a Texas state senator, and the boy killed himself. Now the legislator wants revenge, and he’s tapped Texas Ranger Russ Kirkpatrick to get something on Watts—anything, just so it puts him in jail for a long stretch.
To Kirkpatrick, the senator is a pest with a strong sense of entitlement. But the politician is not letting go, and if Kirkpatrick doesn’t produce, he’ll be a Ranger no more. While he’d rather not have this assignment, he has it, and it leads him to Teller County where the sheriff is notorious for pulling in the welcome mat when out-of-town law enforcement arrives.
Sancho Watts has teamed up with a Teller County celebrity, and you’d have to appreciate how much Texans love their football to understand the full significance of this partnership. The young man is former University of Texas footballer Bobby Burnell who lost his budding pro football career in a freak accident.
The separate strands of the story move smoothly toward an inevitable showdown, the outcome of which could go a number of different ways, most of them disastrous. Focusing on the action, Pool is light on description, and he writes good, humor-laced dialog. This is a book for fans of how things are done in Texas. Big. Very big.… (mehr)

Cooper Daniels has come up with a sure fire plan. Take the marijuana he and his buddy, Davis, has grown and processed, stuff it in some furniture, load that furniture and a bunch of other assorted junk into one of those container units, and ship it down to Texas. Let somebody else do the high risk deed of driving the pot across state lines. Legalized pot in Colorado is killing their ability to sell his illegal weed. The market is collapsing around their ears and being the brains of the duo, it is up to Cooper to get them out of their latest problem. A problem made massively worse thanks to a taskforce in Chicago that busted the guy he was going to sell his latest thirty pounds of high quality weed.

Things are changing and Cooper and Daniels are struggling to keep up. The old network is going under thanks to the wave of marijuana legalization sweeping the country. Cooper and Davis aren’t getting the bucks they are used to which is killing their life style. A life style built on concerts, parties, and getting blasted while staying at the best places and having the time of their lives. It has been grand, but they are getting older and things are changing in many ways.

In one last desperate attempt to get a big pay day, Cooper reaches out to an old contact down in Teller County, Texas. Elroy “Sancho” Watts is thrilled to hear from Cooper and is willing to work a deal. Neither Cooper or Davis wants to go back home to their old Texas stomping grounds, but the plan is to get in, do the deal, and get out of Texas as fast as possible and for good reason.

One of the many things they don’t know is that things have changed in a major way in Texas as well. One of those changes is the involvement of a man known to one and all as Bobby Burnell. Known to folks as “Bobby Burnout” for good reason the man is a human disaster zone. Involved in the deal, he as well as Sancho and several other folks are under the watchful eyes of local and state law enforcement. All of this and more means trouble, often at the point of a gun, for all involved.

Published by Down & Out Books, Michael Pool’s latest crime fiction feast, Texas Two-Step is a high octane ride. Shifting through various characters it becomes clear as the read powers towards a deadly confrontation that nearly everyone involved has dirty hands. Some are just a little worse than others.

As he did in other reads, author Michael Pool quickly pulls the reader in to a crime fiction tale populated by complex characters doing their best in their own ways to get through that brings far more trouble than one would expect on the surface when the decision happens. Texas Two-Step is an intense read that works on every level. Highly recommended.

Texas Two-Step
Michael Pool
http://www.michaelpool.net
Down & Out Books
http://www.DownAndOutBooks.com
2018
ISBN# 978-1-946502-56-8
Paperback (also available in eBook format)
280 Pages
$16.95

Paperback review copy provided by Wiley Saichek of Saichek Publicity for my use to read and review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2018… (mehr)

Cam Reynolds has a simple job. Collect the money owed to his boss, Tommy, Jr. He is the son of the legendary and now deceased mob boss, Tom Colcetti. The kid may not value him as much as his father did, but the kid is keeping the family business going and Cam still has a job. Though it is not the job he wants as he feels that he should have moved up by now. Junior has also made some changes that Cam does not approve of and it looks like he won’t be moving upwards anytime soon. At forty two years old he should be doing better than still having to go after guys to collect debts.

It is the job Cam has and he is very good at it. Cam has a reputation for violently collecting monies owed hence his nickname of “Crusher.” He has such a reputation that he rarely has to get physical these days which are a good thing as the years are beginning to take a toll. The latest dead beat who owes is a guy by the name of Gomez. The man owes 10K and tried to run after getting a wakeup call from Cam who happened to be sitting outside the guy’s place when he made the call. After trying to run and being caught, some trunk therapy followed by quiet contemplation of his circumstances should assist Gomez with his motivation to pay up.

Unfortunately, things go wrong and years of loyal service mean nothing. Gomez was connected and Cam got the order to lay off after he had already started trunk therapy. Crusher screwed up and now he is a dead man on the run. At least he thinks he has a sexually willing travel companion in the mysterious woman he met in a Seattle area bar who is willing to help him get out of town in exchange for a fee.

Author Michael Pool quickly pulls the reader into a classic noir style set up where the antihero is on the run because things finally went wrong. One little thing starts the collapsing domino chain and things escalate rapidly in the wrong direction. Unlike his short story collection that I reviewed back in January, New Alleys For Nothing Men: Crime and Noir Stories, where some characters are a bit more introspective, Debt Crusher is pretty much a straightforward violent crime fiction novella. In some of those stories, the violence is chained up and it takes time to be released. In this novella, the violence is a major character and barely under control from the first page. Debt Crusher quickly becomes one violent confrontation after another as Cam does what it takes to not only honor his nickname, but to stay alive. If you prefer animals in your stories, a read clean of graphic language, and the violence to be off the page, this is most definitely not the read for you.

Debt Crusher: A Novella
Michael Pool
http://www.michaelpool.net
All Due Respect Books (Imprint of Down & Out Books)
http://www.allduerespectbooks.com
February 2018
ASIN#: B079R7ZJGN
eBook (also available in paperback format)
117 Pages
$4.99

Copy provide by the author for my use to read and review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2018… (mehr)