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Rich Olsen

:inda Kertchbaum Books

Friends:

All of my eBooks on Smashwords are $2.99 and you can still download the first 15%. There are now twenty eBooks and that includes the first book in the Anointed One series. You can download any book to your Kindle, Nook, tablet, iPhone, smart phone, laptop or desktop. They would make nice gifts for the readers in your life.

If you prefer getting books at Amazon all the eBooks are available there as. You can also order all my books in paperback. I am also in the process of offering all my books in hardcover from Amazon as well.

If you like a good action and mystery novel involving structure fires and police procedure you will love the books in the Linda Kertchbaum series. Want to discover my ideas about God, Satan and other religious themes, try In Defense of God. If Science Fiction is your thing, i have the Space Marshals and The Anointed One series. The Space Marshals series is a blend of actio0n, adventure, mystery and thriller all mixes with a tinge of reincarnation. The Anointed One deals with an alien civilization that has come to Earth to make the Earth part of their Empire.

Please give me your feedback and a review of the book. If you like it, tell your friends as well. you will find links to Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Apple I Books at the bottom in contacts.

Thanks

Rich

Linda Mathews-Kertchbaum Books

MISDIRECTION

Someone is burning firemen and blond strippers to death and it is the job of newly promoted Lieutenant Stan Jaworski to head the task force and find the killer. Jaworski’s problem, his boss, Deputy Pittsburgh Police Chief Robert Johnson doesn’t think he has the ability and tells him so. Jaworski is the command rank officer with the most arson experience, but Johnson doesn’t think he’s up to this task. Also, Homicide Sergeant Mitchell Kincard, who Johnson thought should have gotten the promotion instead, is determined to prove he’s the better detective. Now Jaworski, with only a firefighter and arson investigators on his team, must prove to Johnson he is the man for the job.

In the process, Jaworski and his team make a chilling realization, the killer’s real target is Linda Mathews a blond firefighting Lieutenant, and the killer is someone they would never have expected. Worse, after a daring and almost impossible rescue of the Vice President by Linda Mathews, from his burning hotel room, a room set on fire by the killer, the killer kidnaps Linda.

Jaworski and his team must figure out where the killer has Linda, his ultimate prize, and rescue her before the killer can torture and burn her to death, as he did other blond women. But this killer is the smartest villain anyone has ever met, and they know he has her in the one place no one would think to look for her. it becomes a race against time, to find that location and stop him before he can do to her what he did to the others.

DICHOTOMY

Jenson, master criminal, has a plan to steal several billion dollars, but first Leah, one of his gang of thieves wants revenge. She sets a large paddleboat on fire to kill the man she believes is responsible for her boyfriend’s death and a botched robbery in Seattle. It was supposed to be a small fire, but it wasn’t, it involved several decks and other people were killed.

Linda Mathews-Kertchbaum has returned to work after her ordeal with Robert Johnson. She has also married Peter and they had a baby girl. She is working as the lieutenant on Thirty-two Engine, the first due apparatus to the paddleboat fire. She can see the flames from blocks away and once on the scene asks for additional alarms. After her initial report, it was time to lead her crew into what had become the bowels of Hell, for the initial attack.

Malcolm Greene is now a full time Fire Marshal and is assigned the boat fire to determine if it is an accident or arson, along with his partner, Rich Mathews

Four days later, the FBI raid a building where they have received a tip that terrorists are holed up and have made sarin gas. Thirty-two Engine is one of the Haz Mat rigs and it is Linda’s job to stand by to decon any police or FBI and then go into the sarin gas environment and decon that.

Two police officers die in the raid, and that brings in Homicide Lieutenant Stan Jaworski. When the FBI try to freeze him out, he says he’ll call Vice President Thomas about the incident. The FBI relent and allow him to continue.

Jaworski is convinced that there will be another terrorist attack and that the sarin gas will be used as a diversion for some other crime, but he has no idea what that crime will be. As he and his partner investigate, he doesn’t realize that in the end it will all tie together in a manner none of them would have ever considered.

If you like action, especially firefighting action, mystery or police procedure, Dichotomy is the book for you. As with Misdirection, you will be able to read the first 20% for free before you buy it. .

THE FIFTH HORSEMAN

President Denzenbaker and his wife died in a helicopter crash making Vice President John Thomas the new President of the United States. After being sworn in, the Director of the Secret Service gives Thomas the bad news, Robert Johnson is still alive, and will probably try to burn him and his wife to death. Last time he almost succeeded, only Linda Mathews saved Thomas and his wife, now Thomas has been informed Johnson is about to try again.

The Secret Service comes up with a bold plan, Linda Mathews, now Kertchbaum will head up a team of five firefighters whose only job is to protect the President and First Lady from Robert Johnson. Worse, like Thomas, Linda thought that Johnson was also dead. In her last encounter with him, he tortured and raped her and almost burned her to death. Only the efforts of Stan Jaworski, Malcolm Greene and her now husband, Peter Kertchbaum saved her. In addition to wanting to burn the President to death, Linda has learned that Robert wants to make her his trophy wife and sex slave, to do whatever he wants to her.

Linda assembles her team and the Secret Service announces their existence. The Reverend Billy Bob Lee sees the announcement and flips out. The Bible makes it clear that women are to be subservient to men, not lead men. Therefore, Linda must be the Harlot sent from Hell by Satan to protect the Antichrist, John Thomas. It is the end of days, and the four men on Linda’s team must be the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Linda is the Fifth Horseman. The Holy Spirit tell Lee that the Harlot and the Antichrist must be stopped, and they can only be stopped with the Heavenly Fire.

Linda and her team must prevent Johnson, a criminal genius and the Reverend Lee, a religious fanatic, from burning the President to death with the Heavenly fire. What could possibly go wrong?

AVARICE

Linda Kertchbaum has been released for duty by her doctor and it is her first day back. Her position as Deputy Chief has been eliminated, and since she did not have enough seniority to be a battalion chief, she had to become a captain on 32 Truck, which is fine with her.

An hour into her shift there is a report of an explosion and chlorine leak at the University Inn. Battalion Chief Rick Smith is the first on the scene and calls for 32 Truck and Engine on a Haz Mat response, stating that Deputy Chief Kertchbaum would be in charge.

During the course of the incident, Linda discovers that a one ton chlorine cylinder for the swimming pool had been deliberately punctured, it is not an accident, it is murder. She calls in Lieutenant Stan Jaworski to investigate the murder.

A few hours later, a restaurant where a billionaire is having lunch is bombed. Linda and Fred Mandelman must respond to that incident and crawl through the debris and under the ceiling looking for victims, knowing the ceiling could fall on them at any second, killing them

Later the same day, there is a third explosion, a firebomb in Linda’s district, and she is the first captain on the scene and is put in command. This is her first shift

Someone has sent the Mayor a CD stating he planted the bombs and if they do not pay him $2,000,000 per explosion, he will blow up more buildings at two million per building. They have eight days to pay.

Jaworski must find out who the bomber is and catch the bomber before he can strike again. He must also figure out how the billionaire that died in the second bombing figures into this case.

Avarice is a novel combining the action of fire rescue with police procedures and mystery. It is about greed and what someone will do for money. If you enjoy action/adventure, police procedural or who done it, you will like Avarice. It is the fourth book in the Linda Kertchbaum series.

JUSTICE

Justice has gone astray in Pittsburgh. Criminals are getting off on technicalities by killing or intimidating witnesses. A small group of people in the Justice System believes this was not what the forefathers had in mind. Their mandate from the State says they will discover the truth, the innocent will go free and the guilty will be punished. As a result they hold trial with the “accused” present. The prosecution presents their case and then the defense does the same thing. There are no legal tricks to bring about reasonable doubt by the jury, and there is no jury, just a judge. When both sides rests the judge finds the person guilty and determines punishment. The punishment is death, and the executioner then burns the guilty person..

It is Deputy Fire Chief Linda Kertchbaum that commands the members of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire to extinguish the first fire. It is a multi-alarm fire in a vacant house. After the fire is out the body of a man is discovered in one of the rooms. It is apparent that he was killed in the fire on purpose and that the fire was arson. Linda calls in her friend, Homicide Lieutenant Stan Jaworski to find the murderer along with his partner and two fire marshals.

A few days later there is a major fire at a vinyl chloride plant on Linda’s shift. Two bodies are discovered and Linda asked that Malcolm Green and her partner, Rich Mathews investigate. It quickly appears that the fire was set by the owners for the insurance money so they can rebuild the factory in a country that is willing to overlook some of the hazards in making vinyl chloride.

Additional people are killed and the next name on the docket is the owner of the vinyl chloride plant. However, what they do not know is the fire at the plant was accidental. Malcolm declared that. So, what are these people to do who took the law into their own hands and discover they were about to kill an innocent man, especially since their last victim had not actually killed anyone?

ORDER OF SUCCESSION

Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire Deputy Chief Linda Kertchbaum just happens to be working a call back on an engine when she spots heavy black smoke. It isn’t in their district, but since they are the closest she tells the lieutenant to check it out as dispatch sends them the other first alarm companies to that location for a train derailment and fire.

Linda is the first on the scene and with the lieutenant checks out the derailment. It is three box cars on their side with black smoke coming from a slit in the open door. Linda goes on the top of the car on its side and carefully opens the doors to find what looks like two chemicals that should not be transported together. Her worse fears are confirmed with she has the lieutenant spray a small amount of water into the car; the water cause the fire to intensify. It is sodium and a pesticide in a box car labeled auto parts.

Linda takes command and since she is also Secret Service prevents the FBI from taking over since she outranks the head Fed in Pittsburgh. She has to let the fire burn itself out because putting water on it is the worst thing she can do. However a major storm is coming so she must extinguish the fire with sand and tarp the cars before the storm arrives. With a driving sideways rain drenching everything she manages to get the final car door closed and tarp before the sodium can get wet.

The incident last a week. In that time, they discover it is terrorism. Worse, they think the attack was a diversion and the real target will come on January 20 at the Inauguration of the President, only she has no proof. Now she must convince the President, his advisors and Cabinet of this. Her problem is twofold, the Secretary of Homeland Security does not think amateurs, especially a female firefighter from Pittsburgh, could be right about a terrorist attack his Department didn’t know about.

The second problem is the same Cabinet Secretary may be the man behind this attack so he can use the Order of Succession to make himself President. Now Linda and her team must prove he is the one behind this pending attack and find a way to stop him.

Greed

Linda is the first person on the scene of a four story apartment building that is on fire. She sends in crews for firefighting and rescue until one crew is almost killed in the process. She calls for an emergency evacuation of the building only to be told that on the fourth floor there are about 100 or more victims and they all need to be carried down aerial ladders since the stairs are impassable. Linda has no choice but to let the rescue continue until she has to make a choice, the safety of her firefighters or the fate of victims that appear to be dead from the smoke.

Stan Jaworski and Malcolm Greene are called in to investigate the fire, it is arson and most of the victims from the fourth floor died because of that arson. An arrest is quickly made but before it can go to trial the arsonist, who was released on bail, disappears.

A few months later two boys go missing and it is feared they are in an abandoned coal mine. Linda uses her position to go inside with Fred Mandelman to search for the boys. She is still guilty from all the victims that died at the apartment fire when she called for a second emergency evacuation to save her firefighters. The first tunnel they need to search is about 100 feet below them and four miles long. That is in addition to other tunnels and the bottom of the main shaft, 1,200 feet below them. There are bodies in the bottom of the shaft. After the rescue they decide they needed to recover the bodies in the bottom of the mine shaft. One of them is the suspected arsonist, shot dead and dumped in the mine.

We learn who the brains is behind the building arson and why. We also learn who the muscle is. The brains is arrested and will give up the muscle. The muscle has a plan to prevent that. He orders Jaworski’s wife to be raped and kidnapped and then tell Jaworski that his wife will be tortured to death unless Jaworski kills the brains behind the plot. However, Stan’s wife is on the phone with Linda as the men try to abduct her. Linda knows she must save Kathy Jaworski, her best friend, and stop the muscle, a man that has been terrorizing a whole community as well as a drug dealer and mass murderer. She also knows she is the only person that can do that.

Occum's Razor

James Maxwell Stuart, the CEO and founder of Western Pennsylvania Technologies has married out of his class to his beautiful and sexy wife Gloria. Stuart hears a noise downstairs and is instantly awake and grabs his gun. He is going to teach the burglar a lesson. There is a struggle and in the process Stuart is killed with his own gun.

Missus Stuart is a friend of the Mayor and tells the Mayor she wants the best Homicide Detective on the case, so Stan Jaworski is called to investigate the crime. To Stan it is just a robbery gone bad, but Gloria is beautiful and sexy and maybe she was having an affair, or maybe someone wanted James Maxwell Stuart out of the way so they could move in on Gloria.

Deputy Chief Linda Kertchbaum is visiting her Battalion Chiefs. She is visiting Battalion Two when an automatic fire alarm comes in for a grade school a few blocks away. She tells BC Two she will take it. It turns out to be an arson fire that is designed to kill the grade school children. Linda must come up with a plan to save the children and put out the fire even if it means stripping the rest of Pittsburgh of its fire protection.

She calls in Malcolm Greene and his partner Rich Mathews as well as Stan Jaworski. Stan tells her since no one died at the fire he can’t investigate the fire, he has the Stuart case.

There are two more fires. In the third as police arrive for an alarm and confront the gang members setting the fire, gunfire is exchanged one officer dies, a second is wounded, one gang member is dead and a second dies later that night. As it turns out the gang set fire to a Western Pennsylvania Technologies building were a top secret computer chip was being delivered to an Army General. He is killed in the fire and the chips are burned totally.

Now it is Jaworski on Linda’s case. The coincidence of the gang members burning this building is too much and Linda and Stan start looking into the people that work at West Pa Tech with the help of the FBI spy catchers. As it turns out the fate of the country and the world could be in danger if Linda and her team cannot solve this case and find the person responsible for these fires and murders.

The Harlot and Delilah

Heather Droscill is the Chief Judge in the Federal Appeals Court in New York City and they overturn the conviction of a pedophile and killer because the FBI did not have a warrant when they read his chat with another pedophile in a private chatroom. They overturned it because the killer had an expectation of privacy since it was a private chatroom.

Judge Droscill is coming out of the courthouse after the announcement and just as a reporter asked her a question the reporter drops his notebook. Droscill bends over to pick it up just as a shot rings out, a shot that would have killed her if she had not bent over at that moment.

The Reverend Billy Bob Lee is back and he hates Droscill because President Thomas, who Lee is convinced is the Anti-Christ is a liberal and a lesbian and the rumor is Thomas is going to nominate her for the Supreme Court and he has the votes to get her on the court. Lee calls her the Delilah from the Old Testament.

Droscill is shaken to her bones by the failed assassination attempt and calls Thomas. She says that only one person can save her, Linda Kertchbaum. She wants and needs Linda for her protection detail.

Kertchbaum, who Lee claims is the Harlot, sent by Satan to protect the Anti-Christ agrees to protect Droscill. Her team goes to New York and in the process Linda and her team prevent two more assassination attempts on Droscill and one on President Thomas. However, Lee has a plan, one that will send the Harlot, Delilah and the Anti-Christ back to Hell and Lee has been assured by the Holy Spirit that this time it cannot fail.

Space Marshal

Space Marshal Novels

PAST LIVES

In 1492, Rodrigo Sandino was a Dominican Friar in Cuenca, Spain whose job was to determine who were crypto-Jews and convert them to Christianity. His real mission in life was to torture as many young girls to death as he could, subjecting them to horrible pain and death. Before that, he was the high priest for the first Pharaoh where he sacrificed young virgins, telling him the virgin would be waiting for him in the afterlife.

Upon his death as the first Pharaoh’s high priest, he learned to hide from God and Fate, thus avoiding paying for his bad karma. He also learned the skill of picking the fetus he wanted his soul to incarnate into, not the one God or Fate had in mind for him.

In 2325, Nicole Jones is a captain in command of a UAP Space Marshals Investigative team of the United Affiliation of Planets whose capital is New York City, Earth. It is an affiliation spread all over the galaxy thanks to the discovery of the hyperjump engine. With hyperjump, all planets are no more than sixteen hours away.

One of the planets in the UAP, Eros, is the pleasure planet although officially it is called the fantasy planet. Someone on Eros is torturing woman to death, some of the torture methods going back almost 5500 years, to the time of the first Pharaoh of Egypt. It is Nicole Jones and her team’s job to find that killer and bring him to justice.

Nicole Jones is the most beautiful and sexy woman in the UAP, an affiliation of over 100 billion beings. What Nicole doesn’t know, but will discover, is Rodrigo Sandino has yet to pay for his 5500 years of bad karma and it will be Nicole’s job to make him pay that bill, assuming Nicole isn’t the next victim.

DUTY HONOR COUNTRY

Heather Robinson is the new Captain of the UAP Space Marshal team that had been led by Nicole Jones for three years. General Thrope, the commander of all Division Three teams promised her two weeks to get to know her team and for them to get to know her, but this is a Division Three team, and things change.

Potentate Boglietti from the UAP planet Vesta is visiting Chlorophyceae, part of the Planets and Moons of Vulcan, the PMV. There he is killed and General Thrope knows that only Heather Robinson and her team can solve this politically sensitive case, so after just four days, she sends them to the PMV.

Heather must discovered who killed Boglietti and why. Is it the beautiful and sexy wife, who is from Chlorophyceae? Could it be someone from the Potentate UAP Space Marshal Protection Team so he could be with the wife, or worst case scenario, could it be the Government of the PMV. To complicate matters, everyone in the PMV is white and they hate the UAP because almost everyone is black or brown, included Boglietti. The Government of the PMV considers Heather and her team apes, and lets them know it.

Heather must discover who killed the Potentate, why he was killed, and if possible without starting a war between the UAP and the PMV. If that isn’t enough, she must do it with a team that does not know her and loved their old captain. In the end, the answer and the motive is beyond anything they had ever considered.

FRENIMIES

On Earth in what used to be India a triple stack train transporting 20,000,000 gallons of styrene explodes in a massive fireball destroying a plastasteel factory and a town of 15,000, killing everyone. UAP Space Marshal Division Three Captain Heather Robinson and her team are assigned to find out if it was an accident or an act of terrorism.

Heather and two other Division Three teams under her command look into the incident and question the railroad, the plastasteel manufacturer and the company that makes the styrene. They are afraid of lawsuits and refuse to cooperate so Heather sends detective to the Earth office and home office on different plants, planning to serve six warrants on three different planets plus Earth at the exact same minute.

Space Marshal Sofie Stoyanov is finishing her classes for her Ph D in computers with an emphasis on the dark web and hacking from Benaven University in Pittsburgh. She discovered that it was not an accident, the train engine was hacked into and that triggered the explosion. She also discovers that the hacker, Richard Ryan, is her former lover from her freshman year at Benaven.

Now they must get the evidence on Ryan for the murder of 15,000, only Sofie knows that Ryan isn’t stupid and will have powerful degaussers to wipe his hard drives clean at the first sign of his pending arrest thereby eliminating all evidence of his involvement in the crime.

It is up to Sofie, the best computer student in the history of Benaven to prevent that from happening and getting the evidence on Ryan. However, what neither Sofie, Heather or anyone else realizes is Ryan is only a pawn in this crime. The mastermind’s plan is beyond the imagination of everyone involved and only Heather’s ability to see outside the box and Sofie’s computer skills can figure out the real crime and bring the mastermind to justice.

Mars: The Bringer of Death

Sofie is now Doctor Sofie Stoyanov, Ph D. While Heather and Sofie are checking out her new apartment, Heather gets word of a new assignment, on Mars. There have been 3 murder suicides on Mars in two weeks, normally there are two in a Mars year. Heather and her team are sent there to discover if these are double murders or just a rash of suicides.

Heather and her team learn that Mars is a planet made up of the have and have nots. 70 percent of the population live in deject poverty while the one percent are wealthy beyond imagination, the .01 are trillionaires. They do not share and use the local police to keep the 70 percent in poverty and out of their communities

Heather discovers that the planet averages at least 2,000 homicides a day, and about 300 Line of Duty deaths among law enforcement personnel. There is a poll tax that is so high that only the top one percent can afford to vote. As a result in order to get elected to any position you must have the approval of the top .01 percent. 100 Space Marshals die every year because the Space Marshal that runs the planet does not allow his Space Marshals to wear the required protective equipment to prevent their deaths.

Heather is involved in the rescue of two Space Marshals that were ambushed. She has her SWAT vehicles fire spreads of eight stun grenades to protect her Marshals and the two Marshals that were shots. The poor of Mars keep coming in waves and more grenade spreads are fired. It seems like the poor of Mars do not have credits for food but do have weapons. In the end, one of the Marshals is dead and one lives because they were not wearing the proper protective clothing. She is also told that the lieutenant colonel does not allow grenade spreads, they are too expensive. Heather and the colonel have it out. She points out that a grenade spread is 520 credits and the colonel is saying that the life of a Space Marshal is not worth 500 credits. As Heather learns, it is not the colonel but the top .01 percent that does not want to pay for the proper protective clothing or grenade spreads even if it will save the lives of the Space Marshals.

After Heather reports what is happening on Mars and the colonel’s boss, General Imari, relieves him of command. Heather discovers there is a plan by the .01 percent to live forever at the expense of the poor. As a result she will butt heads with the super wealthy men that run Mars, and perhaps the United Affiliation of Planets, and stop this inequity even if it means her career or her life.

Rule of Law

Heather and her team have gone to the planet Apsu orbiting Hephaestus Beta. It is a triple star system. Alpha is a white dwarf, Beta a yellow dwarf like Earth’s sun and Gamma is a red dwarf. Once on Apsu they go to the murder victim’s apartment and discover four men robbing the apartment. They are arrested and forgotten.

Heather and her team discover the killers are living on Marduk, the sixth planet in the orbit of Hephaestus Alpha and the closest to Apsu. They travel there and it has only 5,000 people living on the planet and an attitude of the wild west. While the town has a small police department it is really run by the gunslingers, the fastest draw being the one that runs things.

Heather challenges someone to a fast draw contest. He has six others with him. Heather beats the guy to the draw and her team stun the others. After that the fastest man with a laser pistol challenges Heather to a draw and he too loses. Some semblance of law and order is again restored. Then Heather and her team arrest the killers that have been staging the murder suicides.

After the arrest, the Police Chief tells Heather about three young girls that have gone missing. She looks into it and it appears they were abducted. They head back to Apsu where they discovered the four men they arrested died from drinking poison champagne. Also another three women were abducted from their apartment. Suddenly Heather realizes she has another more important case on her hands. She cannot overlook the abduction of six young women.

Where they raped and killed? Where the killers sadistic murderers? Where they sold into white slavery? It turns out that Sandra knows the answer and that answer is on Nissaba Four where any human female could be sold to a sadist for $125,000,000 and the sadist can do anything to the female, no questions asked. Heather must go to Nissaba Four and try and discover the fate of the women and if possible rescue them from a horrible death. She has only Sandra to help and protect her. Heather’s hope is she can accomplish this rescue without becoming a victim herself, a fate that means she too will die a horrible and extremely painful death.

Poseidon:
Playground for the Wealthy

Heather and her team along with a Division Three Robbery Team are sent to Poseidon to investigate a series of robberies in which four people have been killed during the robberies. The victim was always someone wealthy and he or she was along. Two of the victims lived on Poseidon and two were there on vacation.

Heather splits her team and the robbery team in to two other teams and their four teams stop at the planets where the victims of the robberies and murders had lived. On the way to Poseidon there is another robbery and the man is killed.

All the killings appear to be random, like the victim coming home and interrupting the robbery and getting killed in the process. However, upon a closer look Heather realizes they were not random and it was not the victim interrupting the killing. Instead, it was the killer waiting for the victim for some reason.

Heather and her team realize that this is murder for hire and the robberies are only to cover up that the five victims were all intended victims and someone paid to have them killed. The problem is the five victims come from four different planets. That means the murders were all arranged on Poseidon or someone took out ads for a “Murder Inc” business on those planets, or maybe every planet and moon in the United Affiliation of Planets. That means Heather must discover the identity of the murderer, the person that paid to have their loved one killed and the person behind this “Murder Inc.” The only thing the victims all have in common is they were wealthy, but then Poseidon is the playground of the wealthy.

Religion

IN DEFENSE OF GOD

In Defense of God is my ideas about whether or not God exists, Who or What God might be and Who or What Satan might be. It is an attempt to discover what Heaven and Hell might be also. It discusses the concept of Reincarnation, problems I have with different Old Testament stories, and what I believe they really mean and contradictions between Canon Law and that which we have always been taught about God. Finally it discusses the idea that there could also be a God called Fate that has planned out our life to the last second and another God called Chaos Whose function is to disrupt Fate’s plans.

In Defense of God is more of a book of questions than answers. The reason is because no one has the answers and no one is an expert on God. I have spent a lot of the last fifty years, and in some cases longer, thinking about these things and while I have answers to many of the questions posed, I may never discover if those answers are correct, not even in death. Some of the ideas and questions have only developed in the last year or two.

The purpose of this book is not to answer all the questions or convert you to my beliefs, but to make you think. On many questions I have thought outside the box to come up with answers. We have been taught to accept the answers that others have proposed hundreds and even thousands of years ago. Religion does not want us to think for ourselves, but to blindly accept their ideas. I do not want you to blindly accept my ideas, I just want you to think about God, an All-Knowing, All-Loving, All-Forgiving, All-Merciful and Perfect Being in a different light. If you are willing to do that, then this is the book for you.

Julie Markos Novels

Roberta Parker was brutally and sadistically tortured to death. She was a lesbian and a masochist that wanted more and more pain because in her opinion it only improved her orgasms. It appeared that someone may have taken that to the ultimate extreme.

Julie Markos is a Pittsburgh Metro Police Lieutenant and the head of sex crimes. She may be the most beautiful and sexy woman in Pittsburgh. She is dating David Kirkpatrick, the Chief of Detectives. He asks her to investigate the death of Roberta Parker because he cannot trust Homicide. The Homicide Captain, a woman, has assigned a man to the case when Ms Parker was last seen in a lesbian S&M strip club. David knows that the lesbian suspects will not speak to a man, but they will speak to Julie. Also, the Homicide Captain is a member of the strip club.

Julie’s problem, she isn’t a lesbian, or even bisexual and she is not into S&M, but she agrees. Once undercover in the club she meets a lawyer, a shrink, the Homicide Captain and a ruthless billionaire dominatrix, any of which could be the killer.

Julie’s other problem is the law says if you are a suspect of a crime you do not have to speak to the police. Therefore Julie can only interview suspects with the suspects approval, giving the suspects the upper hand. These suspects are all lesbians and Julie is forced to play their games in order to solve the horrific murder of Roberta Parker. As for who the killer is, that comes as a complete surprise to Julie and everyone else.

This book is set in Pittsburgh, about fifteen to twenty years in the future from whenever you are reading this.

Monsters

A woman is sadistically killed and dumped like the trash. Pittsburgh Metro Police Lieutenant Julie Markos is on call and gets the case. Police Chief David Kirkpatrick and billionaire dominatrix Dana Cross are with her and out for the evening. They all go to the crime scene. Everyone that sees the woman’s body throws up, the damage to her body and the suffering she endured are so bad.

Julie needs a partner who knows about sadists. She asks for Rosemary Finn the ex-police chief Julie forced to retire. Rosemary agrees but has an agenda, to humiliate Julie to extract her pound of flesh for forcing her to retire.

The victim has a brand, it says she is the property of J Teddington Hawthorne III. They discover that Teddy, as he likes to be called is a billionaire sadist that owns legal slaves. He forces them to endure only pain, no pleasure, as well as chemical pain for one, three, or five years in exchange for millions of dollars.

Teddy likes to have S&M sex parties and suggests Julie attend his next party as a submissive so she can meet all the possible suspects. Julie reluctantly agrees but only if Rosemary can attend. There Julie sees the sadistic extent that Teddy and his friends will go to legally as long as no permanent harm or damage comes to the submissive.

There are two more murders, each woman suffered longer and longer than the previous. The killers are trying to see how long they can keep the women alive and in pain. Each woman is more beautiful and sexier than the previous.

The dominant killer has met Julie, she is the most beautiful and sexiest woman he has ever seen and he has to make her his ultimate victim; planning on keeping her alive and in pain for months. Julie and Rosemary know she is probably on the killer’s radar so now it is a race to catch the killer before he can abduct her and make the rest of her life truly a living Hell.

Blue Meth

Someone has learned to make methamphetamine that looks like a cold pill only it is blue, not red. It is even in a blister pack like a cold pill. Not only is it being produced commercially but it is even being distributed to retail outlets like any legal product.

Julie is looking at Christmas lights with David and Dana when she gets a call about a woman’s body that was dumped in the middle of the Carson Street Strip. Julie and Police Chief David Kirkpatrick get on the scene and Julie calls the Chief of Homicide. Julie’s new boss arrives and is pissed that she went over his head and called the Chief of Homicide, but David said he okayed it.

Julie needs a partner for this so again ex-Police Chief Rosemary Finn is her partner. Julie discovered that the dead woman is an undercover drug officer and that the Chief of Drug and her new boss want to take the case from her. Julie says no and uses Rosemary’s title as Chief to force their hand. Chief Kirkpatrick is called in tells the others it is Julie’s case.

A stripper is found dead in the Champagne Room of a Strip Club in Shadyside. Detective Sergeant Bill Ferguson gets the case. He discovers she is selling Blue Meth but not paying those that make it. Instead, she uses the money to gamble. An enforcer is sent in and he kills her. The Homicide Chief realizes that Ferguson’s and Julie’s case are the same and Ferguson is put under Julie’s command.

Julie goes through the files in Drug and realize something is not right. She then goes undercover to trace the Blue Meth back to the manufacturer. She is working her way up the line so Blue, the one running the organization, orders her killed. Finally, the identity of Blue and the others are revealed to the shock and surprise of everyone.

Anointed One

The Anointed One

The Anointed One:
The Alpha Female

Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexandria Reynald, Alexis to her friends was sitting at the CIA but instead of everyone talking about her retrieving the laptop with all the info about the Allah’s Servants it was about the spaceship that landed on the lawn of the White House. In addition, an exact duplicate was sitting at the Capital of every country on Earth. As Alexis told the others, it does not bode well for the Earth. You don’t send that many spaceships if you come in peace.

Deep in a bunker in the White House, President Spaulding, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Nance, National Security Advisor Elizabeth Harris and the other members of the National Security Council were meeting to discuss the spaceship on the lawn. Nothing was happening, it was just sitting there. After 21 hours to the second, ramps came out of every spaceship and a four-and-a-half-foot alien right out of science fiction movies emerged and said he had a message for the President. His message was simple, the Earth has 49 days to surrender and become part of the Empire or the Empire will go to war with the Earth and 49 days all their military will be destroyed. He needed an answer because his ship would leave in 21 hours.

Spaulding asked who the expert on something like this might be. There were no suggestions but Nance said if they were looking for someone that could think outside the box better than anyone else and if there was a weakness to these Grays, Lieutenant Colonel Reynald could find it.

Alexis was given a battlefield promotion to Brigadier General and tasked with the job of finding the alien’s weakness and defeating them. At a dinner with Elizabeth Harris Alexis laments about her job, having to investigate all the crazies. She said she wishes she could get inside a ship or talk with the aliens and learn their secrets, but that will never happen.

The days were counting down until the invasion and one day on the way home, in her limo surrounded by a military convoy, they lost all power and an alien ship landed in front of them. A voice told Alexis if she does not surrender in seven minutes and come aboard their ship every soldier in her convoy would be killed and she would then be taken by force aboard the ship. Bullets and shells just hit a force field and either explode harmlessly or fall to the ground. Alexis surrenders and willingly boards the ship. She is whisked away to a mothership somewhere near the orbit of Neptune. There she meets Jones.

Jones is the Information Retrieval Officer. He tells Alexis that she is the Alpha Female, the most important person on Earth. She will be the go between the Earth and the Empire. He also tells her that the Race has an organ that Earth humans do not have, one that allows them to drink in the fear of the opposite sex. It has formed and shaped the Race’s past. He then tells her that it is pain that produces the most fear in all humanoid females and that is what he will elicit from her. He also tells her she will be on the Mothership for 28 days and then returned to Earth seven minutes before she was taken.

She meets the future Governor of Earth, Adam. He asks her to be his Earth Primary until his actual Primary arrives. Alexis stands up to him and the Race gets their first look at a strong-willed dominant female, something they never encountered. In the next two days both Alexis and the Race learn about each other and come to believe that when Alexis tells them of an Earth saying, “be careful what you wish for, you may just get it,” it is words of wisdom because now that both the Race and Alexis have what they wished for, they do not want it.

This is the first book in the Anointed One Trilogy.

I was born in Toledo, Ohio and received my Bachelor’s degree in Music Composition from Bowling Green State University. Upon graduation, I decided I wanted to be a firefighter and took the test for the Toledo Bureau of Fire, but finished number 200. They were only hiring a 100, so I decided to go to graduate school for my Master’s in Music Composition. I went to the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, where a professor taught me the rules of English composition.

I have been interested in many different forms of fiction, mystery, police procedure, action adventure, science fiction and religion. I have been a volunteer firefighter in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) for 25 years. I am currently the Safety Chief with the department. I have been associated with different fire departments for about 32 years. Over the years I have photographed or fought in excess of 500 structure fires and completed over a 1000 hours of instruction in various firefighting, rescue, and hazardous materials courses and was also a haz mat tech on one of the County’s Haz Mat Teams.

In addition to Misdirection, I have published The Firefighter’s Cookbook through Quixote Press/ and articles in two different firefighting magazines, I currently live in Allegheny County with my wife and two cats.