Bellingham Police Detective Darren McDaniel has worked dozens of homicides in his years on the force. It’s a dark and gritty business, and he’s prepared to handle whatever it throws at him. Or so he once believed…
Detective McDaniel Boxset
Book 1 – Hold Back the Night
The young girl is dead, curled up on a bus stop bench in the predawn hours. She’s wearing a white princess gown…and a steel chain on her ankle. A cryptic message scrawled across the booth’s dusty glass wall may be the only clue.
Detective McDaniel discovers the girl had been held somewhere horrible before her death. But, his blood chills when he realizes she hadn’t been the only captive. Are the other children still there? Can McDaniel save them in time?
Book 2 – The Easy Way Out
A headless corpse washes up in a secluded cove. The body shows signs of extreme trauma – torture. But, with no head and no usable fingerprints, the remains offer few clues.
The investigation uncovers a disturbing pattern: multiple young men on the fringes of society have disappeared. And each of the missing men had been directly connected to a treacherous trio – a petty drug-lord, a sheriff’s detective, and a bombshell femme fatale.
When a sixth victim disappears, McDaniel knows he has only hours to unravel the tangled mess of lies, deception, trickery, and murder before another body disappears into the bay.
Book 3 – All the Way Down
Once, Detective McDaniel missed a chance to take down a horrific human trafficking organization. He has been haunted by that failure ever since. An informant offers McDaniel evidence that could devastate the traffickers. But the information comes at a price. The snitch insists on running an illegal rogue operation…with McDaniel riding shotgun.
McDaniel can’t walk away from the opportunity, but to pull it off, he'll have to risk everything - his career, his marriage, and possibly his freedom. But if he lets the traffickers escape a second time, his career and his life would be meaningless. Can he trust his own judgement, or will his desperate desire to redeem himself lead to his own destruction?
Book 4 – Already Gone
McDaniel responds to a report of domestic violence turned deadly. He arrives to find the front door ajar, the house trashed, and a puddle of blood soaking into the bedroom carpet. The couple who rent the house is missing, as is their toddler, Cami.
Fearing the worst, McDaniel plunges into the hunt for a suspect, a body, and a missing toddler. But as the evidence stacks up, the case becomes increasingly bizarre. The missing couple had ties to money laundering, drug trafficking, organized crime, and even darker secrets.
With their suspect list steadily growing, and the missing toddler’s time slipping away, McDaniel races against the clock, piecing the puzzle together, hoping to save little Cami before her time runs out.
All four of Detective McDaniel's thrilling cases collected in a single set!
A Darren McDaniel Prequel
Half A Monster
Officer Darren McDaniel just wants to get his trainee through the shift without another major flustercluck. His plan for the day, teach Rookie Conklin paperwork and parking tickets. Maybe she can talk on the radio a little bit.
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But when a trio of frenzied meth addicts go on a wild kidnapping spree through downtown, the veteran cop and his rookie get caught in the middle of the mayhem.
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Violence escalates as the fugitives grow more desperate. Their spree spirals into a rampage as threats become bloodshed. The entire police force mobilizes, hoping to end the carnage before bloodshed becomes murder.
But as McDaniel unravels the truth behind the reckless scheme, he realizes his rookie may be the only one who can bring the desperados to heel.
Hang on for a fast-paced action-packed ride as McDaniel and Conklin chase down Half a Monster.
5 out of 5 stars. One of the Best Novels of 2019! - Wayne Stinnett
Hold Back The Night
4:23 a.m. The phone rings. The officer on the other end says, “It’s a bad one, Darren. Can you come?”
Darren McDaniel has worked dozens of homicides in his years as a detective. It’s a dark and gritty business, and he’s prepared to handle whatever it throws at him. Or so he once believed.
The pre-teen girl is dead, dressed in a white princess gown, lying on a bus stop bench. There’s a steel chain clamped to her ankle. A cryptic message scrawled across the booth’s dusty glass wall may be the only clue.
As McDaniel plunges into the case, he isn’t surprised to discover the girl had been held somewhere horrible before her death. But, his blood chills when the evidence shows she wasn’t alone. Other children were with her. Are they still there? Can McDaniel save them in time?
The detective races against the clock, but the closer he gets, the deadlier the chase becomes. Secrets this dark fight back. When those secrets turn their murderous attention on McDaniel’s family, he faces an impossible decision–let the killer walk free or risk losing his own daughter.
Beautiful, tragic, but ultimately triumphant Story – Kobam, Amazon Reviewer
The EAsy Way Out
Still reeling from his encounter with a depraved child killer and a professional hitman on the city’s waterfront, Homicide Detective Darren McDaniel is thrown back into the fray. A headless corpse washes up in a secluded cove near the industrial district. The body shows signs of extreme trauma – torture – prior to being tossed into the sea.
The brutal excess of violence disturbs McDaniel, pulling him into the investigation. But, with no head, no usable fingerprints, and advanced decomposition, the remains offer few clues to the identity of the victim, or the perpetrator.
McDaniel, and his partner, Brent Vanderwyk, begin investigating reports of missing persons, hoping to match an open case with their victim. A disturbing pattern soon emerges - multiple subjects on the fringes of society have disappeared over the past few years.
The case that started with a headless corpse on the beach quickly spins out of control, expanding to include at least five men, dead or missing. All of them are directly connected to a treacherously entangled trio – a petty drug-lord, a sheriff’s detective, and a bombshell femme fatale.
McDaniel and Vanderwyk slowly unravel the tangled mess of lies, deception, trickery, and murder. As the pieces fall into place, they learn that a sixth victim has been taken.
The detectives formulate a plan to capture the killer and save his latest victim before it’s too late. But as they race to the rescue, the mission quickly unravels, plunging the detectives into gunfights, car chases, mayhem on the high seas, and a nail-biting conclusion that will leave you on the edge of your seat.
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It Just Keeps Getting Better – Becky Wells, Amazon Reviewer
All The Way Down
Detective Darren McDaniel is finally back to work, not that his supervisor is happy about it. After his last explosive adventure, McDaniel's just barely managed to keep his job, and there’s no way in hell the bosses are going to let him anywhere near a major case. One wrong move now will land him on permanent parking patrol.
He can't stop turning the Polakoff case over and over in his mind. McDaniel and his former partner uncovered a horrific human trafficking organization, but McDaniel’s loss of critical evidence allowed the criminals to escape and perpetuate their evil enterprise. He's haunted by his missteps and determined to work his way back into his boss's good graces.
Now McDaniel is partnered with Detective Wooten on the much-less-likely-to-be-involved-in-a-shootout Property Crimes squad. He's intent on proving himself, focusing on the job at hand; purse snatchers, garden-shed burglars, and other petty thieves. If he can stay out of trouble, he might have a chance to do real detective work again…someday.
When McDaniel is contacted by someone with inside information about Polakoff and his associates, everything changes. The informant delivers McDaniel a devastating new clue, possibly enough to dismantle the trafficking organization. In return for the information, the snitch insists on running a rogue operation against Polakoff’s associates, with McDaniel riding shotgun.
To pull it off, he'll have to risk everything. If it goes wrong, McDaniel knows he will lose what’s left of his career, his marriage, and possibly end up in jail for a very long time. But if he lets the traffickers escape a second time, his career and his life won't have much meaning. Can he trust his own judgement, or will his desperate desire to redeem himself lead him down the wrong path?
A Friday night screaming match turns deadly.
Already Gone
Levi Riley and Jayda Bloom broke up over a year ago, but still live together in the same small house with their little girl, Chamomile. It's a tense arrangement not helped by Jayda’s drug use and her new boyfriend’s frequent visits. One Friday night, an argument turns physical and the tensions boil over into bloodshed.
The following morning, a neighbor finds the front door ajar, the house trashed, and a puddle of blood soaking into the bedroom carpet. Detective Darren McDaniel and his partner, Brent Vanderwyk, quickly determine it’s a case of domestic violence turned deadly. But both Levi and Jayda are missing – as is the little girl.
As the detectives plunge into the hunt for a suspect, a body and a missing toddler, the case becomes increasingly bizarre. The couple have ties to money laundering, drug trafficking, organized crime, and even darker secrets. As much as Levi and Jayda hated each other, plenty of other people had reason to want either or both of them dead.
With their suspect list steadily growing, and the missing toddler’s time slipping away, McDaniel and Vanderwyk race against the clock, piecing the puzzle together, hoping to save little Cami before her time runs out.