BOOK 2: THE EULOGIST - DEAD RINGER (TO COME)
A suicide note is left along with a pile of clothes on the shores of Lake Tahoe. Poor Fritz Foster had said goodbye to this cruel world. Charlie Sandors attends the memorial for Fritz, who appears to have been a popular guy. The walls of the chapel are covered with photos and small shrines. Fast forward six months: Charlie is hired to investigate an insurance claim in New Orleans. An expensive yacht suffered extensive damage during a mysterious nighttime collision. When Charlie shows up to interview the yacht’s owner, it turns out to be Poor Fritz of the Lake Tahoe suicide. Charlie recognizes him from the memorial service photos. Charlie confronts Fritz, who doesn’t deny the faked suicide or his new identity. In fact, he draws Charlie into his confidence, telling him he suspects the boat collision was no accident. Fritz left his clothes behind in California, but took with him over two million dollars in stolen drugs, pornography and cash. He stole the loot from crooks who were dealing out of a warehouse Fritz delivered to as a messenger service driver. Though it initially seemed so tempting and such a perfect escape from his otherwise dull life, Fritz now realizes he is in way over his head. The videos are snuff porn, apparently using illegal aliens; the drugs are stolen prescriptions, and the cash is almost gone. Fritz wants Charlie to help him straighten it all out before the crooks discover his faked suicide and track him to New Orleans… but maybe they already have. BOOK 3: THE EULOGIST - DEAD QUIET ON THE SET (TO COME) Set in the glitzy world of advertising, modeling and production, Charlie Sandors takes on the character of a flamboyant set stylist when he attends the funeral of a prominent TV commercial and infomercial director. Highly respected, successful and universally hated, the director supposedly wrapped his convertible around a phone pole going too fast after a night of partying. His production assistant, a gorgeous young woman obviously in love with the dead director, doesn’t believe it and confides in Charlie. She tells him the director was on the verge of finally making his big break into features, and claims he was not the playboy his reputation alleged; instead, he was a serious filmmaker. She begs Charlie to help her uncover the man she believes is the real killer: a charismatic inventor and pitchman whose numerous products the director had immortalized in wildly successful late night infomercials. But is it really the pitchman or is there someone else, someone who is not getting enough attention, someone who felt his inspired ideas were being stolen by the pitchman and the director? BOOK 4:THE EULOGIST - DEAD PEOPLE DON’T SWEAT (TO COME) Charlie Sandors attends the funeral of a young man and deduces the “dead man” is actually sitting next to him, nervously sweating, in attendance at this own funeral (tip of the hat to Tom Sawyer). Charlie and the young man, kindred spirits as they are both “pretenders,” set out to catch the murderers before they strike again … and get it right. Why are they after the young man? Turns out he witnessed the murders of three other men, all of them members of a sophisticated gang of computer criminals specializing in illegal corporate espionage, selling their ill-gotten proprietary information to the highest bidder: maybe another business … maybe another country. Seems the murdered men were expendable agents, hired to find information and disposable once the scheme was discovered. Adding intrigue, the gang is led by a brilliant, beautiful woman. |