Blue Smoke and White Crystals

Humorous crime fiction set in 1972 New York, Florida, the Bahamas, with a host of wacky characters, limited dark humor, and a distinct lack of political correctness.

Assigned to a large frozen beef and lobster heist, suspicious bells go off in the mind of Bronx Detective Rusty Matthews, when his boss, Captain Jake Bender refuses to add a partner to the million dollar case. Quickly, a trail of deception leads to Rusty as the target of a conspiracy.

At the crime scene, Rusty notes the thieves were not endowed with remarkable intelligence. Seeking an ally, he teams up with insurance investigator, Michelle Ferguson, a fatal attraction who cuts to the chase when sparks fly between them. Arrests are made when they recover the frozen beef, but there's no sign of missing frozen lobster tails worth three quarters of a million. Then, an informant reveals the lobster tails were packed with bags of cocaine.

Meanwhile, a big cocaine shipment falls into the laps of misfits--a fumbling gang of thieves. Someone orders a hit on food company employee, Teddy Viella, a comical man whose best friend is a horse named Curveball. Imbued with gangland ethics, the misfits vow to retaliate. Without warning, people disappear, leaving behind the remnants of ongoing love affairs.

For Rusty, suspicions of police corruption ring true when Jake Bender is suspended for tracking down a drug-dealer out of jurisdiction. But who, together with Bender, planned the conspiracy? Maybe Bender had a connection to someone else up the ladder, big enough to put Rusty's career or his life on the line for. Alone, he trails the two elusive groups secretly, because if there's one lesson Rusty's learned over the years, spinning the truth about police corruption can be deadly.