Book Release, Re-release, New Covers, and an Author's Book Fair

The third novel in
the Jonas Watcher series

The Case of the Jade Dragon

The best unkept secret, I am releasing the third book in the Jonas Watcher series, "The Case of The Jade Dragon". The cover I had initially created caused a bit of a controversy because it partly resembled a poster from the movie Chinatown starring Jack Nicholson. I admit the poster was my influence for the cover, but I had thought I had created something different enough to be okay. Many of my peers disagreed with me, so I adjusted the cover. The final cover and the one the book will be released with is to the right.

Synopsis - Jonas is on a train to San Francisco and it is stopped the Los Angeles rail yard. Jonas just happens to see a Chinese couple being kidnapped. He comes to their rescue. This action begins a series of adventures where Jonas travels to St. Louis to bring back a bride for an arranged marriage. Jonas finds himself dealing with Chinese mysticism, mythology, and some very real people who will stop at nothing to see that he fails, including murder. A train, a plane, and automobiles used in a round trip between Hop Alley in St Louis and Chinatown in San Francisco. Jonas uses all his resources to stay alive in this adventure and gets in a little romance too. What does all this have to do with a Jade Dragon? You'll have to read the book. it will be available at Amazon in paperback and eBook format.

The Jonas Watcher Book Series

Someone told me you were not truly a novelist until you released your third novel. I guess the idea was that everyone has one good book in them. If you write a second book, then you have proved that lightning does strike twice in the same place. When you write your third novel, then you are elevated to the position of a novelist. Not necessarily successful, but an author with tenacity. I decided as a way to celebrate this milestone in my career by re-releasing my first two books in second editions where I and others have gone through the books and fixed typos, spelling errors, and grammar. Additionally, I have changed the covers in an attempt to create a cohesive look and feel. If you have read the books there have been no changes to story or characters. The books and the Series have taken on some alterations because a couple of years ago in my youth I had not set the series up properly, whatever that means.

This collection is identified as the Jonas Watcher Series. I am taking the name Jonas Watcher out of the title. What I was using as a subtitle for each book, is now the title of each book. I am using the subtitle as a tag line. The first book is volume 1 of the Jonas Watcher series and it is titled "The Case of the Running Bag". The tagline or subtitle is "A Jonas Watcher Detective Adventure".

The Case of the Running Bag

Jonas Watcher :Volume 1

This was my first novel in this series and my first published novel. It didn't start out as part of a series. I had been reading a short story collection by Dashiell Hammett, "The Continental Op". In one of the stories, there was a husband who was missing or something, anyway, it started me thinking what if? The Case of the Running Bag was born. I chose the period of the 1930s because I hadn't read much from the period, and I was always a fan of The Thin Man series, Philip Marlow, and early Poirot. Forensics is limited, recorded history is fairly plentiful, and it is post the great war. The United States is still fairly innocent in world politics, Hollywood is in a golden age and the rich and powerful play with the infamous from the underworld.

Synopsis - Jonas Watcher is a derelict sleeping off the granddaddy of hangovers. He is on a floating dock under one of the wharfs in San Francisco bay. He comes to. He is awake, hung over and wet from the mist off the bay. He starts to climb up a ladder onto the wharf above. He is about to reach the top of the ladder when someone swings a large object connecting with Jonas and knocking him off the ladder and into the bay. Jonas clutches at the dingas as it carries him into the bay. Jonas survives and while he is trying to regain his wits he becomes aware that someone just tried to kill him. The dingas turns out to be a running bag with good news in the form of money, bad news in the form of a single action Colt 44, and an uncertain future in the form of keys and a business card with an address. From Jonas' perspective, the Sisters Fate have been messing with his life and now they have brought the cauldron to full boil.

Jonas follows up on the address and the keys and falls into the middle of PI's office with an open case involving the rich and powerful and a kidnapping plot by some unsavory characters. Add a dash of a dead PI, a suspicious police officer, and someone is still trying to kill him.The more Jonas tries to extricate himself the deeper he get into it. A hell of a time to quit drinking.

The Case of the Bourbon Street Hustler

A Jonas Watcher Detective Adventure

Although I have never been to New Orleans I have always had a fondness for the city. Romance and intrigue permeate New Orleans and the surrounding countryside. From New Orleans French roots to the mythos that seethes through the surrounding Bayou, New Orleans is steeped in an almost fantasy oriented realism that attracts artists of all muses; musicians, artists, and even writers. When I realized there would be a second Jonas Novel, I also knew it had to take place in New Orleans.

Synopsis - There are no ghosts here, and the deadliest creature in the Bayou in on two legs and is the only one that kills for sport.
I open The Case of the Bourbon Street Hustler with an homage to Charles Dickens because in a way it relates to adventures that Jonas was about to undertake.

Martin Stanton was dead. He was as dead as a door... 

I stopped and laughed as I looked out the window.

I remembered the opening to “A Christmas Carol.” 

Why do we say “door-nail” instead of "coffin-nail?" 

Jonas had closed his first case in San Francisco and it made the papers. However, Martin Stanton may not be dead. Jonas traveled to New Orleans to learn the truth and to pay respects to a friend's family. He didn't expect to run into his past from Orleans, France, get caught between local and state police in a political battle only as Lousiana can play it, and find himself in the crosshairs of someone who wants him dead. From the clubs in the French Quarters to the cayman infested swamps of the Bayou, Jonas as usual, is always in trouble. The invisibles of New Orleans, are there to help. The Sisters Fate are there to cause trouble. Just who is the Bourbon Street Hustler and whose side is he or she on? The answers are in "The Case of the Bourbon Street Hustler".