by Ernest McQueen
When private investigators Ted Bird and Betty Abbett are hired by a local shipping tycoon to investigate a smuggling racket, they quickly find themselves in the frame for murder.
As Ted struggles to unravel the truth, another man disappears at sea. The net is closing in. Could their client be lying to them? Is anyone they meet being straight? This is a high stakes story of greed, piracy, murder and international intrigue. We're excited to bring you a new gumshoe detective, Edward Bird. Known to his enemies as Ted Bod, he works with his boss, Betty Abbett, to clean up the port city of 1950s Kingstown. That's right, Ted is a totally new British crime hero for the modern reader. In the vein of Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner and James Crumley, Ted is the real deal. This is British Gumshoe Noir for the 2020s.
Amazon Reviews
"A cracking 50s noir, updated for today’s readership. Can’t wait to read the next one!" 5-STARS *****
Paul Dettmann writes nonfiction about crime, gangs and music. He sometimes writes novels.
PAUL DETTMANN wrote his first novel as Paul Charles, during his X-Files period in the mid 1990s. From Beyond Belief, also known as The Playground, describes Peter Flynn’s hunt for the evidence that might prove his wife really was taken by aliens. His only other Paul Charles novel, Kicking Tin, tells the story of an NTSB investigator who tries to solve the mystery of a plane crash that resembles TWA-800. More recently he has written British Gangs 1900 - 1950, a nonfiction history of gangs in the first half of the twentieth century. He also writes crime noir pot-boilers as Ernest McQueen.
by P. C. DETTMANN