Events
The folks at the Jefferson City Public Library were kind enough to invite me to a book signing. Take a look at the poster they made up for the event. Find me at 108 City Center Drive, Jefferson City, TN. Call 865-475-9094 for more information. See you then.
WANT A BRAND NEW SIGNED COPY OF A SAM JENKINS MYSTERY?
Pick up one of more print copies of an assortment of books left over from a few signing events. Each is brand new, unread and signed. If you want a book dedicated to you personally, just let me know how you would like it done. Everything is priced well below Amazon’s listed prices for new books–$10.99 each plus inexpensive media mail shipping. Also available are a VERY FEW professionally produced audio books on CDs. These are no longer being published and can be seen on a few sites offered at RIDICULOUS prices. My price: 6 bucks...
read moreCOMMING IN FEBRUARY 2025….DEATH OF A DOCTOR, the 10th Sam Jenkins novel. Here’s what it’s all about: Doctor Paul D’Amato’s sister found him slumped over his dining room table with a .38 caliber bullet hole in his right temple. The original investigation listed D’Amato’s death as accidental. Months later, insurance investigator Velma Barnett disagrees. She thinks it looks like a suicide, which would negate the half-million-dollar death benefit D’Amato’s sister hoped to receive. Barnet petitions the Blount County Sheriff to...
read moreDEFUNDING…a short story
Recently, politicians on the ultra liberal side of the fence have suggested that their constituents might be better off if they had less contact with the police. They suggest “defunding” police budgets and allowing these citizens to resolve their own problems. Unfortunately, these politicians wouldn’t know a police necessity from the empty space between their ears. DEFUNDING (POLICE WORK IN THE [not too] DISTANT FUTURE) (The following is based on a real incident. However, in that case, the police responded quickly and the situation was...
read moreCASHING IN…a short story
November 1974, Long Island, New York I was standing behind the precinct desk holding the “gas board” talking to one of the desk officers while my partner pumped gasoline into our police car. One of the front doors opened and a cold breeze blew into the building. The two cops who drove the car adjoining our sector walked into the lobby with a prisoner in handcuffs. As one of the officers gave the desk man some information on the arrest to be recorded in the tour blotter, the prisoner broke free and ran headfirst into a large bronze plaque...
read moreSo Long Bob, and Thanks for the Memories
On January 30th three inches of snow fell. Then it rained, and the world turned to slush. Then it snowed again, only to be topped by a smoky-looking Scotch mist. Overnight temperatures glazed the landscape. Being one of those eco-conscious schmucks, I didn’t buy any rock salt. So I sharpened my ice scraper and ate a big bowl of Wheaties the next morning. After hours of chipping and scraping and shoveling what looked and felt like tons of shaved ice, I opened my jacket to cool off. An invisible cloud of a goat-like odor wafted upward. I hung...
read moreStreet Justice, a very short story
Jamal Willie Walker raped and murdered a six-year-old girl in a cracker box home on the seven hundred block of Taylor Avenue. We traced him from North Bellport in Suffolk County, where the crime occurred, to the third floor of a six family tenement in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. I kicked in the door and my partner covered the room with his revolver. As the door snapped open and slammed against the wall, Walker grabbed a pearl handled, “tuxedo” Colt automatic from the dinette table. “Two against one, Jamal,” I said. “Pull that trigger...
read moreA Halloween Collar: A Sam Jenkins New York police story
“I’ve had a wonderful time, but this wasn’t it,” I said, and smacked the kid on the back of his head. The ghoul mask fell from his hand to the floor. “Up yours,” he said. I grabbed his nose and put my face an inch from his ear. “The next time I hit you, you little stinkbug, you’ll lose your teeth.” His eyes strained to look at me. I removed my fingers from his beak. “I chased you four blocks,” I said, “and ripped my pants going over that fence. I am not a happy policeman. I’ll ask again. Where did you get those fireworks?” “I forget.” I...
read moreFestival of Felonies
From bizarre animal killings in HAVE YOU CONSIDERED VOODOO? to a grisly death by tomahawk in REENACTING A MURDER; follow veteran cop Sam Jenkins from his days as a young New York squad detective until his second career as a middle-aged police chief in the not-so-quiet Smoky Mountain community of Prospect, Tennessee in the series’ fifth anthology of realistic crime fiction. In other segments of this collection, Jenkins is faced with investigating the aftermath of a mass murder at an elementary school in PAPER TRAIL, with proving one of his...
read moreSomething for nostalgia seeking Brooklyn Dodger fans.
LAST GAME IN BROOKLYN By Wayne Zurl On September 24, 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field and I was there. Well, not exactly there—I watched the game on TV. I was eleven and had sprained my ankle the day before in gym class. My mother kept me home from school to let it heal. The Dodgers’ second baseman Junior Gilliam just hit a high fly ball to shallow right field when I heard what I thought was a muffled backfire sound off close to our house. I looked out the window, but didn’t see a car running. Then a man about...
read moreWriting Guide for Young Authors
Many thanks to Denver Librarian Bethany Langston for sending me this information found by one of her writing students. The young lady wanted to share this other beginning writers who might stop by for a look at my links page. These future authors will be forever grateful to Amelia and her mom for sharing this good information. https://www.wristbandexpress.com/content/hand-hobbies-a-resource-guide-to-writing-basics/
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