AUTHOR OF BLOODY HALLS, THE CASE OF THE GREEDY LAWYERS, OLD SILVER,
A SUPERIOR MYSTERY
and INNER PASSAGES
Before he became a mystery writer and reviewer, Brookins was a freelance photographer, a Public Television program director, a Cable TV
administrator, and a counselor and faculty member at Metropolitan State
University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He has reviewed mystery fiction for
the Saint Paul Pioneer Press and for Mystery Scene Magazine. His reviews
also appear on this web site, and on Internet sites, including Books n'
Bytes and ReviewingtheEvidence. Brookins is an avid recreational sailor.
With his wife and friends he has sailed in many locations across the world.
He is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. He can
frequently be found touring bookstores and libraries with his
companions-in-crime, The Minnesota Crime Wave. He writes the sailing
adventure series featuring Michael Tanner and Mary Whitney. The third novel
is Old Silver. His new private investigator series features Sean NMI Sean. The first is titled The Case of the Greedy Lawyers.
Brookins received a liberal arts degree from the University of Minnesota and
studied for a MA in Communications at Michigan State University.
NEW ANTHOLOGY: THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT
Echelon Press (ISBN: 978-1-59080-596-1)
Now widely available, this fund-raising anthology of twenty-one short stories was put together by the writers and staff of the press in record time. It's a fine way to
introduce yourselves to the writing of these authors and there's an added benefit.
All of the work on the book was contributed by the publisher, the writers, the
editors and others. Income from sale of the book will go to aid survivors of the
wild fires last year in Southern California, through the Fire Safe Council of San
Diego County. Find out more and order the book
View the video trailer for The Heat of the Moment:
AVAILABLE NOW: BLOODY HALLS
Murder and mayhem on an urban college campus!
Also available as an ebook from Fictionwise.
Diminutive Minneapolis private investigator Sean NMI Sean is bright, charming and physical when necessary. He is impatient with oppressive regulation, has a taste for both elegance and mundane pleasures, and a cautious willingness to be a white knight. He is proficient in self-defense and capable with several weapons which he’s not unwilling to use. But he is not Mike Hammer and he recognizes that flight is often his best move. Sean is a fan and a student of crime fiction. He uses classic and modern detective novels as his training manuals. He frequently attracts the interest of taller women.
Sean is approached by a woman of obvious quality who says she needs a private investigator. She leaves Sean’s office, making no commitment. Intrigued because she was recommended by a powerful local attorney, Ephraim Harcourt Saint Martin, with whom Sean has less than cordial relations, he shrugs off the incident until the police call him to view her body in the morgue. There he discovers her name is Magda Bryce, wife of one of the law firm’s most important attorneys.
Sean is assaulted in his home and warned to stay away from Bryce and her family. He subsequently learns that an unknown detective has been nosing around asking a lot of questions. He goes on the offensive and appears in the offices of Harcourt, St. Martin, Bryce, Bryce, et cetera, where he satisfies himself that Saint Martin didn’t know of Magda’s visit. As he persists and digs deeper into a tangled web of perversion, faithlessness and distrust, Sean becomes convinced that as sure as his Keds are red, he will ascertain the true motives and unmask a killer who lives among the partners and associates of the beleaguered law firm.
A misplaced letter, a brass engine plate and an unplanned murder launch Michael Tanner and Mary Whitney into their third adventure. Old Silver takes place on and under the icy waters of Lake Superior, in the hushed
halls of corporate America, and in the brawling streets of Chicago at the
dawn of the Twentieth Century.
When Mary Whitney finds an engine inspection plate at the bottom of Lake
Superior, she traces it to a sunken lake freighter named Amador that may
have been carrying a secret cargo from a Chicago family to a company in
Duluth, Minnesota. The problem is, the inspection plate Mary found during
her swim in the Apostle Islands was not where the freighter supposedly
foundered. And when she and Tanner decide to solve that mystery, they
become the target of killers who are desperate to keep the secrets of the
Amador and her cargo away from the public.
"If you crave excitement, adventure and a murder
or two, get on the boat with Carl Brookins. Old Silver takes you places you
never thought you'd go!"
-Don Bruns, author of Jamaica Blue and Barbados Heat