Impact
It is spring, 2006. Three months ago Detective Sgt. Noah Harkham lost his partner – and mentor – Detective Sgt. Rob Meares to a sudden, tragic death in the midst of their investigation into a pair of brutal murders. Now, with the case gone cold and Noah grieving, he gets the news he’s been dreading: he’s been assigned a new partner, Detective Alan Franks. On their first day, the pair get put on a hit and run that left one young girl dead and two families forever altered. When a witness leads them to a member of one of the city’s most powerful families, the two must put aside their differences to close the case – and keep their star witness alive.
*****
The investigation leads them to a prostitute, a millionaire and his family and a drug addict. They have to resort to calling in U.S. Marshalls to try to keep their witnesses alive long enough to go to trial after a very powerful man begins making threats.
It also leads to one of the detectives getting shot.
Check out the first case Detective Sergeant Noah Harkham and Detective Allan Franks work together in Impact: a Riverdale PD Series Prequel. Available in eBook and print formats.
Reader’s Favorite 5 Star Review!
Reviewed by Katelyn Hensel for Readers’ Favorite
“A fun and intriguing drama combo mystery, Impact is a hard hitting ‘who done it’ that makes you want to buckle up and ride right along with Detective Sergeant Noah Harkham. He’s got a bit of a troubled past, with the ghost of his old partner keeping him from moving on, but the Captain thinks it’s time to get on with it and has assigned him a new partner in Detective Franks. Now they’ve got a chance to get the measure of each other while they are solving a particularly sad case of hit and run.
The only thing low about this book was the page count. I could have ridden along with Harkham and solved another ten mysteries before I got bored. Noah was an excellent cop character, not hard and boring like I’m used to in most popular crime fiction. He is a very interesting, smart, and slightly broken guy…even though he says he’s not. He tries to come off as the jaded, calm, collected cop, and in some ways he might be, but in others he’s just a guy with a troubled past. Very interesting character dynamics between Harkham and Franks. It’s hard to call it banter, what with the curt barks and sharp quips, but I really enjoyed how they interacted together, particularly nearing the end of the story. J.I. O’Neal writes cynically and effectively. It wouldn’t surprise me if this was the first of many excellent crime and mystery novels we see coming our way from O’Neal. A solid showing!”
Indiscriminate
August 2013, Detective Noah Harkham’s stellar career was suddenly and violently ended by devastating injuries leaving him deaf and blind on his left side. Nine months later, a string of attacks on rescue personnel has the city of Riverdale in a panic.
And when it becomes apparent that this case has a connection to one Noah and his former partner and best friend, Detective Alan Franks, once worked, Noah is determined to help put an end to the chaos.
With lives hanging in the balance, Noah must overcome his disabilities and aid in the manhunt for the city’s most wanted criminal, even as the attacker draws closer to those Harkham and Franks hold dear.
*****
Check out one of the strangest cases Franks and Noah have ever had in Indiscriminate: Book One of the Riverdale PD Series. The Fifth Anniversary Revised Edition is available in eBook and print formats!
Time of Death
Picking up three months after the events of Indiscriminate, Time of Death centers around former Detective Sergeant Noah Harkham once again. Half-blinded and half-deafened in an on-the-job injury, Noah was forced to retire early. But now he has found a new calling: teaching crime scene preservation techniques to uniformed officers.
However, one case still haunts him. Eight years ago, Noah was a rookie detective working a gruesome case with his mentor and first partner, Rob Meares. With very little evidence and no apparent connection between the two victims, Noah and Rob despaired of ever catching the killer. And when Rob died suddenly of what is ruled natural causes in the middle of the investigation, the leads dried up and Noah was left with his first cold case.
*****
Nigel Warner is a bright young college student, an aspiring architect – and the son of Prosecutor Gerald Warner. When Nigel is found dead, brutally murdered, the first instinct is to think someone killed him to hurt Gerald and his wife. However, the strange symbol carved into his flesh indicates otherwise…
Detectives Alan Franks and Casey Townsend discover that the One O’Clock Killer has returned, after all these years. This time, they also find something the killer left behind…
*****
For Noah, this is the chance he’s been waiting for, no matter how terrible he feels that it had to come at the cost of his friend and colleague’s only son. But when the evidence begins to point to Noah himself, he’ll have to fight to clear his name and to help his former partner and best friend, Detective Alan Franks, catch the real killer.
But not everyone will be as easily convinced of Noah’s innocence as Franks. And Noah’s connection to the case just may prove to be much more real than anyone could have imagined.
*****
The Riverdale PD Series 