BOOKS

THE RAYBRIGHT CAPER

In this series debut, two wily criminals have set out to heist a valuable item of high-tech from a San Diego defense contractor, RayBright Labs. They’re a volatile duo, but effective. And for a while, their plot plows forward undetected and meeting little resistance.

Enter smalltime security consultant Kirbi Mack. Young, female, and biracial, she’s used to being underestimated. Do so at your peril.

In a matter of hours she’s picked up the scent and begun tracking her formidable adversaries along a trail of greed and increasing violence. Told from the point of view of multiple characters, it’s a story filled with twists and turns and shocking betrayals. Kirbi will need to keep her head if she’s to survive. Let alone prevail.

AN HONEST MISTAKE

It’s not much of a crime, more of a prank maybe. Three shots fired through a suburban living room window one night. But retired multimillionaire restaurateur Art Mintz isn’t satisfied with the dismissive police response—this is the home of his son, daughter-in-law, and only grandchild. Wanting answers, he hires smalltime San Diego security consultant Kirbi Mack.

And indeed the shooting is more than just a random prank, as Kirbi soon learns. Behind the act stretches a complicated story involving a disgraced local investment scammer, some misguided political nut jobs, and a rare pistol linked to a dozen murders. Not to mention, a ruthless cartel sicario wanted by the FBI, $150,000 in missing loot, and a member of the Mintz family with some big secrets.

It’s a rich, complex salad of exotic characters with conflicting motives, but a tasty one. All Kirbi has to do to get her answers is stay focused. Oh, and in the end—stay alive.

CIRCLING THE DRAIN

When smalltime San Diego security consultant Kirbi Mack is hired to track down a former member of a local Indian tribe, the job seems fairly simple. The object of her attention? A young man suspected of brazenly robbing the tribal casino. She’s asked to find him, but do so quietly—since the matter is a sensitive one within the tribe, and because such casino crimes are best kept out of public awareness.

However, things aren’t going to stay quiet for long. Kirbi’s quarry proves to be a troubled, one-time MMA fighter with a taste for solving his problems with violence, and he’s teamed up with an equally troubled older woman. Together the two are cutting an increasingly desperate and deadly swath through the lives of those around them.

So as Kirbi continues her investigative pursuit, a stark question begins to take shape in her mind. What happens when the hunter at last brings the beasts to bay?