OCEANO BEACH BEDLAM Releases on St. Patrick’s Day—03.17.2025
If you remember from ALL THAT GLISTERS—Book One in the Thad Hanlon & Bri de la Guerra Mystery Series—Thad is of Irish descent. Shocking red hair. And even some of that plucky Irish stick-to-it-tiveness. In Book Two, Thad’s Irish willfulness plays a big part in chasing down clues for solving the mystery of why their client’s surf prodigy son is on the run and who wants him dead.
With the final manuscript now at the printer, I can share an excerpt with you. Here’s a scene from early in the book.
Book Excerpt
Inside the beach groomer hopper, atop the wire mesh conveyor belt used to sift sand and trap debris, were more body parts, bloated and reeking of decomposition. Looked to be the body of an older teen. The tattoo on the youth’s neck gave me pause.
“You recognize him, don’t you?” Bri, my detecting agency partner, asked.
I did.
I had seen the young man a day ago outside Surf’s Up Donuts, the local hangout for post-surf session nutrition. He was in handcuffs with a couple of his BVL 13 homies. Pismo Beach PD had rousted the Bakersfield Varrio Locos 13 gang members in a weapons search and had not come up empty. NeckTat didn’t look happy then. Someone had made sure he would not look happy ever again.
The crowd of gawkers surrounding the tractor retreated somewhat—inches instead of feet—as State Park Ranger Cody Bolton pulled up in his patrol vehicle. He left his SUV siren screaming, hopped out of the 4x4, and handed me a roll of yellow police tape.
“Hanlon,” he said, “help me secure the crime scene.” From the cargo hold of his sport utility, he took a stack of orange traffic cones and ringed the tractor and the sand equipment. I stretched the barricade tape around the cones to form an oblong perimeter.
My surf buddy, Ranger Cody, took the DO NOT CROSS tape from me and tossed it into the back of his SUV. “Now we wait for Five Cities Forensics.” He killed the siren but left his patrol lights flashing.
The forensic team did their thing. The investigators took a lot of photos of the victim’s body, especially the ear-to-ear cut to the gang member’s neck, just above his BVL 13 tattoo.
As the techs put away their gear, Ranger Cody instructed me to head over to the Five Cities Sheriff’s South Station off Cabrillo Highway in Oceano to give a formal statement.
Detective Naiya Ygnacio was waiting for me at the Station House entrance. She ushered me into the interview room, directed me to sit, and queued the audio by verbally confirming the date, time, location, and persons present. “Hanlon,” she continued, “for the record, state your full name and profession.”
“Come on, Naiya. Is this necessary?”
The detective shoved the digital recorder across the interrogation room table. A red LED glowed. “Talk,” she said.
“Thaddeus Jude Hanlon, Private Investigator. My clients refer to me as the patron saint of lost causes.”
“Cut the nonsense, Hanlon. You don’t have any clients. And for the record, no one in Five Cities thinks you’re funny.”
“Zael thinks I’m funny.”
“Three-year-olds don’t count.”
I wasn’t feeling the respect fellow crime fighter’s warrant. But then, again, Naiya was being bleakly honest. I really didn’t have any clients. And nothing in the development pipeline.
Surfing Safari
Since my last newsletter, four of my brothers and I, headed for the Pacific to get in a little “water therapy.” Ventura CA was beautiful in early October. The beach house was right on the ocean, protected by a seawall, with stairs leading down to the waves. Pure heaven!
Here’s a pic of the five of us. I’m the one in the middle. We had so much fun. Five days’ worth. Can’t wait to go back.
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