Ozarks mystery

Dogs, treasure, and murder–this week’s featured author brings it all together in his Amazon bestselling series!

Richard Houston, Author

From carpenter to software engineer to writer, Richard Houston’s career path has been an intriguing journey. Along the way he honed his creative writing skills by taking every class he could, learning the art and craft of poetry, short fiction, and now novels. In each of his works you’ll find a dog included as a major character (which makes him an ideal guest for my blog!). Richard now lives and writes at his lake home in Missouri where he and his wife are raising their granddaughter and two dachshunds.

Here’s Richard, telling us about his series:

Like most English students (my college minor), I’ve always wanted to write a book. It only took me thirty years. I started my first novel shortly after we moved to the Lake from Colorado. I had been working on several novels using Colorado as the background but never got beyond the first chapter. Then shortly after moving to Missouri I discovered a cave on our property. This was about the same time that the History Channel was airing an episode of Jesse James and the Golden Circle and how they had hid some of their loot in Kansas. Well, I thought, why not Missouri too. These guys were from Missouri — could they have hid money on the Osage? The result is A View to Die For, an Amazon Bestselling Mystery and #1 Cozy Mystery after its release.

Readers have said they find my writing humorous, descriptive, and most of all they love the way my characters are developed. My latest novel has them laughing one minute and crying the next. (Yes, several readers have said it brought them to tears.) My books are listed as cozy mysteries, so there’s no explicit sex or violence. You might find a character or two using some mild four-letter words. I’d recommend the series to readers thirteen and older. You’ll see characters continued in the series, and you can also enjoy each one as a stand-alone novel.

The “To Die For” Series

Great mysteries with an unlikely hero & his canine sidekick

A View to Die For Outsourced software engineer, Jacob Martin, is trying to make the best of a divorce and mid-life crisis when he gets a call at two o’clock Sunday morning from his mother. His sister, Megan, has been arrested for murder, and his father is near death.

Thus begins an adventure that takes Jake and his golden retriever from their Colorado retreat to a backwater town in the Missouri Ozarks where he gets on the wrong side of a sheriff deputy after hiring a crafty lawyer who gets Megan released on a technicality over a suicide note. Then, just as Jake is ready to go back home, she drops a bombshell with a story straight from a Louis L’Amour novel about a treasure hidden by Jesse James.

A Book to Die For features Jake Martin and his golden retriever, Fred, from Houston’s best seller, A View to Die For. Jake is not your ordinary sleuth. He’s an ordinary guy with an extraordinary dog. This time the story takes place in the foothills of Denver.

Jake is accused of manslaughter and he has to prove the accident was really murder. Along the way he encounters a poaching ring and falls in love with a beautiful game warden. The characters are memorable and the plot is multilayered. It keeps the reader guessing who dun-it until the very end. Read Chapter 1 here.

SPECIAL OFFER:

Get A Book to Die For at a special, limited-time promotional price of just 99 cents through May 8^th. And on May 18^th, you can get A View to Die For (the book that started the series) FREE via a BookBub promotion.