Tag Archives: police-detective stories

Free Fire

Posted on March 20, 2025 by smellincoffee

These days when Joe Pickett is building fences, it’s on his wife’s mother’s husband’s ranch property, rather than for the State of Wyoming. Joe’s tendency to get into trouble pursuing the truth, coupled with the appointment of a vindictive weasel … Continue reading →

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In Plain Sight

Posted on March 19, 2025 by smellincoffee

Saddlestring is a small town with a lot of big fish. One of those big fish, Opal Scarlett, has just been thrown in a river — or at least that’s what the sobbing drunk fisherman who threw her in the … Continue reading →

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Trophy Hunt

Posted on March 17, 2025 by smellincoffee

Game Warden Joe Pickett’s peaceful fishing trip with his daughters is interrupted by a foul odor in the air — and following the scent, as the game warden must, leads him to an astonishing sight: the massive corpse of a … Continue reading →

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The Late Show

Posted on March 14, 2025 by smellincoffee

A few years ago Renee Ballard was an up-and-comer,  rising through the ranks at the LAPD’s detective ranks: then a supervisor sexually assaulted her, she reported it, and  soon found herself delegated to the ‘late show’.  She and her new … Continue reading →

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Winterkill

Posted on March 13, 2025 by smellincoffee

The peace of the wintry woods was shattered by rifle shots – a series of them. Game Warden Joe Pickett follows the sound and is stupefied to find the county’s leading forest service officer  massacring elk, surrounded by seven massive … Continue reading →

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Savage Run

Posted on March 11, 2025 by smellincoffee

Joe Pickett has encountered a lot of strange stuff in his so-far brief tenure as a game warden, but exploding cows is a first. The culprit here was a cow strapped with explosives, making players of Command and Conquer: Red … Continue reading →

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Open Season

Posted on March 10, 2025 by smellincoffee

It’s been a long time since I actually thrilled by a thriller — so emotionally charged up by it that I wanted to will the clock to slow down so I could finish the final chapters at lunch and not … Continue reading →

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The Brass Verdict

Posted on March 6, 2025 by smellincoffee

Attorney Mickey Haller hasn’t been practicing law the last year or so, having been recuperating from being shot and a subsequent addiction to pain meds that could have destroyed his life. On the verge of getting back in the game, … Continue reading →

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Killing, fictional and otherwise

Posted on August 29, 2023 by smellincoffee

Lately I’ve gotten into the bad habit of getting almost to the end of the book, and then saying — “Okay, not enough of that to take to work, I’ll start a new one and then finish the other one … Continue reading →

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The Other Side of the Bay

Posted on March 8, 2023 by smellincoffee

The Other Side of the Bay© 2014 Sean Dietrich177 pages There’s a broken down  truck in the woods holding three men,  two drunk brothers and a passed-out football has-been.   By morning, the truck will be discovered in perfect working … Continue reading →

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