Detective Quinn Moosebroker arrived in the sleepy town of Clearview Terrace a broken man. A shoot out in the line of duty killed his partner and a second bullet ended his career with the Allentown Police Department. In his forced retirement, he lives with his daughter Kate and has become a Sunday painter. His one activity is the restoration of a 1946 wood-paneled Chrysler Town and Country and an occasional trip to the local used book shop run by Blake Knightly.
Kate sets her father up on a blind date with the widow Betty Atwood to see a local play at a community theater. At the end of act one Pepper Bishop, owner of the Second Street Mystery Playhouse is murdered.
Betty Atwood starts the beginning of the best first date in history and the best thing that has happened to her in the years since her husband’s passing. The couples casual encounter quickly develops into a partnership that unveils a pornographers scheme to sell photographs of non-consenting Clearview Terrace ladies to a big city true-detective publisher.
During Quinn and Betty’s investigation Quinn bumps heads with the local authority in the form of Detective DeLaMonte a renegade dismissed from the New Orleans Police department.
Eleanor Pennyworth finds Quinn Moosebroker’s name in an address book with the word ‘trusted’ written in pencil. When her partner is found dead in his Clearview Terrace home, she calls in Quinn to investigate a missing literary manuscript known as Night of the Falling. Quinn and Betty find themselves in a world of book people and rare book treasures.
Quinn relays a conversation about a young man’s dream of murder to Betty he overheard on a quiet Saturday afternoon at the local barbershop. The story hits Betty so hard that while she tried to sleep that night she received a visitor in the form of a little boy at the foot of her bed. The haunting guest and Quinn’s growing loyalty to Betty lead them to a government cover-up at a North Carolina Marine Corp Camp and to an aging Marine and his estranged wife.
On the return home, along a cold dark southern highway, Betty adjusts the Town and Country’s radio and a broadcast that correctly describes the night he was shot and his partner was killed sends them on a detour deep into a steel town and Quinn’s past. The investigation undoes Dolan Ó Braonáin a local crime boss and exposes the far reaching tentacles of his organization.
An innocent trip to the grand opening of a Clearview Terrace thrift store and an unexpected find send this detective duo skirting along the edges of stolen Nazi loot as they do their best to find the rightful owner of a piece of art that has survived all that has come its way.
Clearview Terrace will never be the same.
Professional Reviews
From the first page to the last page I was drawn right into the story!
I've enjoyed all of Michael Friedman's books. This one was no exception. Michael always write like you are right there. Love it! In this book, the main characters, retired Detective Quinn Moosebroker and widow, Betty Atwood are wonderful, and the storyline is stimulating, gripping, very well written and very entertaining. Would definitely recommend it to all mystery lovers.
All clues leading to Quinn and Betty...!
I was honored when asked to write the introduction for this book.
Michael Friedman is an author who draws the reader directly into the scene, that is the scene of the crime... in The Quinn Moosebroker Detective Series. I formed an instant connection with retired detective, Quinn Moosebroker and his leading lady, Betty Atwood.
An evening at the neighborhood theater performance turns into a night to remember... filled with murder, intrigue, blackmail and some rather candid photography in '2nd Street Playhouse Mystery’. Quinn and Betty are next called to investigate the missing manuscript of 'Night of the Falling' by Henry Farley, the most coveted piece of writing in English literature, when murder came calling on Big Jim Brady, the richest man in Clearview Terrace. In ‘He Dreamt of Murder’, Quinn overhears a mysterious dream in a barber's shop that takes them on a miraculous journey involving Betty's past. Quinn takes Betty to Allentown on a very personal journey to visit past demons in 'The Radio Players Club Mystery'. Quinn and Betty find an unlikely treasure at the local thrift shop that takes them into the beautiful but murky world of art in ‘The Case of The Chocolate Girl'.
All clues have led you to this point. What are you waiting for...? Stop by and meet Quinn and Betty for yourself at the Frosty Mug Tavern...! It would be a crime if you didn't!
Such a great book filled with many twists and turns
Such a great book filled with many twists and turns, that kept this reader sitting on the edge of her seat. I found it hard to put down as I wanted to solve each mystery. Wonderfully written!
Serial killer Ted Bundy's murders recounted from the perspective of thirty years after his execution in a Florida prison.
Brutal, compelling, with new updated facts about the case, his victims and the compulsions that drove Ted Bundy to mass murder.
An eye-opening look into the world of human trafficking. Pilar thought she was destined to die until she met Becky. A fairy tale ending to this story with the help of Tess is called Justice. It was time for someone to hit back because the courts in S
An eye-opening look into the world of human trafficking. Pilar thought she was destined to die until she met Becky. A fairy tale ending to this story with the help of Tess is called Justice. It was time for someone to hit back because the courts in S
