"Lowan's Checkmate"

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Horace Torin, an honest man, checks into the Noritonia Hotel and never leaves. A single shot echoes through a locked room, Torin’s coat and hat left behind—and the Sunfire Necklace, a fortune in diamonds, is missing. Detective Lieutenant Joseph Marx is baffled, the police are stymied, and the paper headlines promise scandal. Into the chaos steps Lowan: an eccentric private investigator whose uncanny mind-reading is equal parts advantage and mystery. Lowan’s uncanny knack for reading truth beneath the lies complements Marx’s dogged police sense and quiet determination. Rita, Lowan’s spirited niece and secretary, refuses to sit on the sidelines. Together they follow a trail of false names, staged alibis, and a violent mob’s long shadow to a man with a taste for theatrical deception. Their hunt takes them from exclusive country clubs to speakeasy alleys. The suspects are human and ridiculous, brave and petty: a clubman who trades in influence, a safecracker with a scar, and a silent giant who prefers fists to words. As they chase surprising leads, crooked investments, and a gang with a taste for theatrical thefts, they uncover a plan that turns deadly. Laughter meets danger and cleverness meets brute force. The criminal mastermind sets his sights on more ambitious targets—and nothing will stop him from announcing checkmate. The clock is ticking. Can they find the necklace and the killer before the city’s underworld closes the trap? S. E. Grosskopf’s writing is strongly influenced by the old pulp fiction magazines and Golden Age radio dramas of the 1930s-1950s. If you like fast-paced action and mystery with a dash of urban fantasy and quirkiness, then you’ll love these books. This is the first in what will be a very long series. It all starts here!