Showing results by author "Frank Zafiro" in All Categories

George “Mase” Masaryk knows about secrets. He has a few of his own, including the reason he left the police department. The son of Czechoslovak hippies, his life has been a strange journey from rebel to cop to private investigator. It is a path his parents would never have chosen for him. One full of secrets and regrets.

Sandy Banks is the last of The Four Horsemen, a vigilante group of ex-cops determined to right the injustices of a broken court system. But now, the project is disintegrating, putting him in the middle of chaos.

A city councilman is dead of an apparent suicide. Ex-cop Stefan Kopriva finds himself drawn into the case, serving an unlikely client. Once involved, he discovers that things are not as they seem.

When disgraced former cop Stefan Kopriva is asked by an old high school classmate to find a runaway 16-year-old girl, he reluctantly accepts. Driven by guilt over a terrible mistake that drove him from the force more than 10 years earlier, Kopriva battles old injuries, old demons, and long ago memories as he unravels the mystery of the missing Kris Sinderling and seeks his own redemption.

When half-brothers Mick and Jerzy Sawyer are summoned to their father’s prison deathbed, it isn’t for a tearful goodbye. The spiteful old man tells the two estranged brothers about an old diamond heist with outstanding loot, and sets them on a path of cooperation and competition to recover the jewels.

Jake Stankovic has been flying below the radar for years, dealing safely in stolen property crime with his two-man crew. But times are tough, so he decides to step up to the big money with a drug deal. Everything that can go wrong, does.

Carl is a Yankee cop in a small Texas border town. Isabella is a beautiful Mexican woman that everyone in town loves, including the hapless Pete and the wealthy, powerful Jack Talbott...but most of all, Carl.

Explore the tangled lives of these men and women in 14 short tales set in River City!

Officer Lee Salter is a third-generation cop who bleeds blue. Amid the departmental chaos, he does the only thing he can—be a good officer. That means showing up for every shift, responding to calls for service, and always doing the right thing. All the while, the Department of Justice and its local supporters hope to catch another officer in its net of reform. Salter refuses to be that officer.

Boone has been prospecting with the Iron Brotherhood outlaw motorcycle gang for almost a year, trying to earn his patch with the club. When a simple muscle job goes terribly wrong, his world changes forever. He is quickly plunged deeper into a world of drug and intimidation, and the lines between right and wrong blur. The bonds of brotherhood that he forges with other members clash with the dark actions they take. His girlfriend, Faith, represents a danger of another kind, but Boone can’t stop himself where she is concerned, either.

When disgraced former cop Stefan Kopriva is asked by an old high school classmate to find a runaway 16-year-old girl, he reluctantly accepts. Driven by guilt over a terrible mistake that drove him from the force more than ten years earlier, Kopriva battles old injuries, old demons and long ago memories as he unravels the mystery of the missing Kris Sinderling...and seeks his own redemption.

Faced with a possible murderer that won't answer questions, a police department asking the wrong people the wrong questions, and threats of violence from an unknown source, Kopriva forges on, determined to discover the truth...even if it kills him.

Billie Jo Higgins may be small, but she is a skilled burglar, using her craft to keep her and Toby, her addict twin brother, afloat in a hard world. It is a difficult life, but the two are surviving. They take care of each other.

At Their Own Game: Jake Stankovic has been flying below the radar for years, dealing safely in stolen property crime. When he tries to make a drug deal, everything goes wrong. In the Cut: Boone has been prospecting with the Iron Brotherhood outlaw motorcycle gang for almost a year, trying to earn his patch. A simple muscle job goes terribly wrong and changes his world forever. All the Pieces Fall: George “Mase” Masaryk knows about secrets.When businessman Andrew McDonough sits down next to him at the bar, the pair start drinking heavily, and McDonough eventually asks Mase for his help.

Detective Jack “Mac” McCrae has lost his hero. Without children or any family, the retired detective takes the death of his mentor hard. When the man's son reaches out to Mac with a mysterious letter containing a startling confession and a plea for help, Mac finds he can't say no.

The Knight family is well-known in Spokane, thanks to the family patriarch, Solomon, founding a regional grocery chain. Each of Solomon's adult children seem to have gone their own way. Jocelyn is a cop. Nicky is a criminal. Susan and Harold are both striving to make it in the business, each in their own way. Marigold is an artist. And Lily, the youngest and frailest of them, is missing—sucked into the dark recesses of the drug world.

Detective Katie MacLeod has her hands full. It has been four years since her promotion to detective, and after paying her dues in property crimes investigations, she has made it to the Major Crimes unit. This is where the highest profile cases land—homicides, robberies, serious assaults, and sexual assaults. Katie catches two rape cases almost back-to-back. One victim is a prostitute with an unknown suspect… who Katie fears may be gearing up for more assaults. The other victim is a college student who has accused her boyfriend, a popular baseball player, of raping her at a party.

A young woman has been murdered in River City. Police Detective John Tower is assigned to the case, but there are few clues to go on. As he digs into the case, he's soon picking up hints that this murder may not be the killer's first...or his last.

Dead Even features 15 stories highlighting major and minor characters from the River City series, including series favorite Katie MacLeod, Detectives Finch and Elias, hard-luck Officer Paul Hiero, and transplanted gangster Dominic Bracco.

Jack “Mac” McCrae is about to retire. Without children or any family, he looks back over his career and his life and finds himself wondering what, if any, impact he’s had on this world.