Saturday, January 30, 2016

Praise for Taunting

marktreble@earthlink.net

Reviews are starting to come in, and they're five stars out of five.

From P. Wincup

Mark Treble should be ranked along with James Lee Burke as a great story teller for criminal thrillers. He thoroughly develops each character in the book so you get to know them as well as Danny Flint. I am looking forward to the next book in this series.

From R. McFarlin

Right up there with the best mystery writers. This is the second book of Mark's which I have read and I like this one best. About two thirds of the way through I started getting an idea who the real villain was but didn't know for sure until just the right time.

Remember, between today and February 5, leave a comment on the blog and get a free pdf copy of the forthcoming comedy, The Trip to Helen Gawne.

Friday, January 29, 2016

The Trip to Helen Gawne

marktreble@earthlink.net

The Trip to Helen Gawne, a road-trip comedy starring senior citizens, will be published on February 20, 2016, in the Kindle Store at Amazon.com.

Between today and February 5, leave a comment on the blog and get a free pdf copy of the book.

Monday, January 25, 2016

Meet the Nurses: Cheryl Longfellow

marktreble@earthlink.net

For reasons I don't understand, many of my strong female characters are nurses. The first post gave information about Kamisha Jackson, Nurse Practitioner in the small town of Stoneport, Florida.

Cheryl Longfellow is Chief Trauma Nurse at St. Swithin's Hospital in New Orleans. Cheryl has a long history of training other nurses, several of whom (including New Orleans' Chief Medical Examiner) later became physicians. In her mid-fifties, Cheryl is a power center at St. Swithin's. She can work miracles for those she likes, and make lives miserable for those who cross her.

Cheryl first appears in Life Struggles, part of the Life Stories Series, as the hero's friend with benefits. When Ethan's (the hero's) stepson, Alex, is kidnapped Cheryl helps Ethan search. When Ethan's search puts him in the sights of a crime family, Cheryl pulls strings to get him a private room at St. Swithin's and round-the-clock care. When Alex is found she pulls more strings and he, too, gets a private room. Eventually the story becomes a medical mystery, and Cheryl shines.

She identifies the medical specialty involved, which allows a nationwide network of medical labs to sort out what the kidnappers of many young men in many different cities want. She works with the police to help focus the investigation, and the Medical Examiner to sort out what the police need.

Cheryl reappears in the sequel to Life Struggles, Life Continues. She' still Ethan's friend with benefits but takes on a second lover, Detective Danny Flint. She sorts out a schedule and an orgasm quota for each man. When Alex goes into meltdowns St.. Cheryl repeatedly rides in on her white horse, even after Ethan has taken on a girlfriend, and ended the "with benefits" part of their relationship.

She next takes a role in Taunting, volume one of The Flint Files mysteries. Now the girlfriend of Detective Danny Flint, Deputy Commander of the High Profile Crimes Squad, Cheryl helps the detectives understand why the serial killer's targets are so easy to dispatch. When a mass poisoning occurs, she helps identify the type of poison and even uncovers its source.

Cheryl makes brief appearances in the Finding Series, volumes two and three, as a minor character.

If you have any questions for Cheryl, please write to marktreble@earthlink.net and he'll relay her answers.

Up next: Rose Borland, retired RN.

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Meet the Nurses

marktreble@earthlink.net

I just realized that many of my strong female characters are nurses. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm also not sure it needs to mean anything.

First is Kamisha Jackson. She appears in Four Seconds on the Clock and in The Trip to Helen Gawne. She'll also make an appearance, maybe many appearances in The Head Game. All three are part of the Gulfside City Series.

Kamishaa Jackson is in her fifties. She is relatively short and weighs about three hundred fifty pounds. She lives in Stoneport, Florida, where she is the only medical practitioner for miles around. She has been a nurse practitioner for several decades.

Kamisha's nephew, Antoine Jackson, is Logan Matthews' best friend (Four Seconds). She was instrumental in convincing her brother to move to Stoneport from New York where the school system had Antoine pigeon-holed as learning disabled. On his arrival she ran a few simple exams and learned that he was mostly deaf and dyslexic. Simple surgery restored Antoine's hearing, and the local school district (and Logan, his tutor) addressed the dyslexia. He turned out to be the brightest kid in school.

Kamisha is a power in the Stonegulf African Methodist Episcopal Church. Most of the area's African-Americans belong to the church, with a few attending the local Catholic church. Kamisha's friend, Jake LaPierre (Heen Gawne) and his family attend the church as well. Jake's deceased wife had been one-quarter black, his only daughter is one-eighth black and his grandchildren are one-sixteenth black. They go to to "black" church in any event because it's family tradition and, most importantly, they feel like family at the church.

Kamisha and Dr. E. Percy Bramble, DDS, (Helen Gawne) take care of most of the Stoneport residents' medical needs. For more than fifteen years Kamisha has been having an affair with Dr. Gil Martin, a white retired clinical psychologist. They make an interesting couple: Gil is about five-ten and maybe a hundred fifty pounds.

Kamisha gets help occasionally from physicians in Gulfside City, the nearest population center of any size. These include Logan's uncle's college roommate, Rick, who visits several times a year. Rick (Four Seconds) is a proctologist (and, yes, he's gay, enough with the snide comments). Rick works as a volunteer general practitioner a few weeks a year in the Stoneport Free Clinic.

Kamisha is central to Four Seconds on the Clock. When Logan Matthews comes out as gay he leaves home knowing that his father will disown him. Logan's best friend is Antoine, Kamisha's nephew, and they consider themselves brothers. So, Kamisha is Logan's aunt as well. Logan moves in with her.

When Tommy West, Logan's former best friend and biggest enemy, also comes out his parents order him out of the house. Kamisha offers to take him in as well. And she is instrumental in helping the two young men deal with the aftermath of terrible trauma three years earlier. Tommy calls her "Aunt Scary Lady." Logan and Antoine are in agreement.

Before you jump to conclusions, most of the characters in Four Seconds are straight. It was helpful to the story, athough not critical to it, that Logan, Tommy and Rick all be gay.

If you have any questions for Kamisha, please write to marktreble@earthlink.net and she will try to answer them.

Next up: Chief Trauma Nurse Cheryl Longfellow of St. Swithin's Hospital in New Orleans.




Saturday, January 16, 2016

Taunting cracks top two hundred in Kindle on day two

Taunting reached number 194 in Kindle in Mystery-Serial Killer on the day after it was initially published.

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Taunting available for discounted pre-order on Friday

Taunting will available in the Kindle Store at Amazon.com for pre-order in the Kindle Store at Amazon.com at the discounted price of $2.99 on Friday January 8. On January 25 it will be available for purchase at the regular price of $3.99.

Somebody is killing the elderly members of New Orleans’ venerable Martyrs’ Episcopal Church. Are bigots targeting the church for holding gay weddings? Are activists targeting the church because its priest wants to preach instead of politicize, and minister instead of marching? Or, perhaps it’s because the church’s congregation has shrunk while the value of its land has skyrocketed.


Or maybe something else is going on here. Follow Danny Flint and the HPC as they follow clues to the killer and bring him in – only to have him die while the bodies keep piling up. Something else is definitely going on here, but what?

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Friday, January 1, 2016

Taunting available next week for pre-order

Taunting, Volume One of the Flint Files mysteries, will be availble on or before January 15 for pre-order. Someone is killing the elderly members of New Orleans' venerable Martyrs Episcopsl Church. It's up to Danny Flint and the High Profile Crimes Squad to stop the carnage and bring the culprits to justice. But, first, motive. There doesn't seem to be a single one that makes sense.

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