While enjoying his usual Friday night after dinner beer at a local restaurant, Jacques (Jack) Ludefance’s evening is suddenly shattered when a beautiful young woman sits down next to him, whispers, “Mister, can you help me?” then falls dead.
After her death is ruled ‘natural causes,’ Jack digs in to unravel the reasons she came to him desperately asking for his help and to investigate her mysterious death. To complicate matters further, her husband is a prominent, highly respected local business man. As Jack begins to unravel the pieces to the unsolved puzzle, the more heinous the crimes of the dead woman’s husband become and Jack finds his own life is in danger.
Reviewed by: Joe Kilgore
Hollywood Book Review
It’s comforting to know that there
are still books being written (print or
digital) that ought to have a musty smell to
them. You know the kind of books I
mean. Paper back with yellowing pages
and a brown circular coffee cup stain here
and there. The kind of book your old man
used to keep on his bed stand or tucked
beneath the front seat of his Oldsmobile.
Now don’t get the wrong
impression. I’m not saying this is a
book long past its prime. Rather, it’s
the opposite. A modern take on vintage
gumshoe yarns that put one in mind of John
D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee
novels or James Lee Burke’s Dave
Robicheaux stories.
In this yarn, author Behcet Kaya tells a tale
of sometime private investigator Jacques
(Jack) Ludefance. Jack lives on his boat in
Florida and keeps a pet alligator on board
for security. Jack has a history with gators.
The long scar on his face is a testament to
it. The scars on his psyche from a recent
divorce are less visible but just as acute.
But don’t waste time with pity. Jack
doesn’t. He just puts one foot in
front of the other and kind of lets nature
take its course—a course that gets a
lot rockier as it goes along.
While Jack’s having a drink and
minding his own business in a bar, a
beautiful woman passes him an envelope
then passes out dead on the floor. The
envelope contains money, photographs
and more that will pull Jack into a web of
smuggling, gun running, pornographic
movies, human trafficking, and murder.
Jack comes to believe the dame wanted
his help, and even though she’s
deceased, when his moral compass fixes
on true north, it’s locked and
loaded. Of course the money didn’t
hurt.
In the pursuit of Jack’s search for
the truth, he comes across a collection of characters that add spice as the story
unwinds. There’s his friend, the local
lawman, who always has Jack’s
back but often wonders just where the hell confident in his hero and himself. It’s
the kind of book that never really goes out
of style.
BUY ON AMAZON
his front is headed. There’s a bad
news businessman who gives to all sorts of
charities but just may be taking away
much, much more. There are Asian
massage girls, or escorts, or whores,
depending on your point of view.
There’s a beautiful lady judge having
a hard time remembering that she’s
married. There’s Jack’s dad
who’s beginning the long goodbye of
Alzheimer’s. There’s a
high-class attorney who may actually be
worth $500 an hour. Plus there are
acquaintances that come and go and
occasionally die.
The novel, in classic P. I. style, is written
from Jack’s first-person point of
view. His commentary is frequently terse,
appropriately self-deprecating, and never
feels borrowed for effect. To sum it up,
this is a good story well told by a writer
Excerpt
While enjoying his usual Friday night after dinner beer at a local restaurant, Jacques (Jack) Ludefance’s evening is suddenly shattered when a beautiful young woman sits down next to him, whispers, “Mister, can you help me?” then falls dead.
After her death is ruled ‘natural causes,’ Jack digs in to unravel the reasons she came to him desperately asking for his help and to investigate her mysterious death. To complicate matters further, her husband is a prominent, highly respected local business man. As Jack begins to unravel the pieces to the unsolved puzzle, the more heinous the crimes of the dead woman’s husband become and Jack finds his own life is in danger.
Professional Reviews
Treacherous Estate
Reviewed by: Joe Kilgore
Hollywood Book Review
It’s comforting to know that there
are still books being written (print or
digital) that ought to have a musty smell to
them. You know the kind of books I
mean. Paper back with yellowing pages
and a brown circular coffee cup stain here
and there. The kind of book your old man
used to keep on his bed stand or tucked
beneath the front seat of his Oldsmobile.
Now don’t get the wrong
impression. I’m not saying this is a
book long past its prime. Rather, it’s
the opposite. A modern take on vintage
gumshoe yarns that put one in mind of John
D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee
novels or James Lee Burke’s Dave
Robicheaux stories.
In this yarn, author Behcet Kaya tells a tale
of sometime private investigator Jacques
(Jack) Ludefance. Jack lives on his boat in
Florida and keeps a pet alligator on board
for security. Jack has a history with gators.
The long scar on his face is a testament to
it. The scars on his psyche from a recent
divorce are less visible but just as acute.
But don’t waste time with pity. Jack
doesn’t. He just puts one foot in
front of the other and kind of lets nature
take its course—a course that gets a
lot rockier as it goes along.
While Jack’s having a drink and
minding his own business in a bar, a
beautiful woman passes him an envelope
then passes out dead on the floor. The
envelope contains money, photographs
and more that will pull Jack into a web of
smuggling, gun running, pornographic
movies, human trafficking, and murder.
Jack comes to believe the dame wanted
his help, and even though she’s
deceased, when his moral compass fixes
on true north, it’s locked and
loaded. Of course the money didn’t
hurt.
In the pursuit of Jack’s search for
the truth, he comes across a collection of characters that add spice as the story
unwinds. There’s his friend, the local
lawman, who always has Jack’s
back but often wonders just where the hell
his front is headed. There’s a bad
news businessman who gives to all sorts of
charities but just may be taking away
much, much more. There are Asian
massage girls, or escorts, or whores,
depending on your point of view.
There’s a beautiful lady judge having
a hard time remembering that she’s
married. There’s Jack’s dad
who’s beginning the long goodbye of
Alzheimer’s. There’s a
high-class attorney who may actually be
worth $500 an hour. Plus there are
acquaintances that come and go and
occasionally die.
The novel, in classic P. I. style, is written
from Jack’s first-person point of
view. His commentary is frequently terse,
appropriately self-deprecating, and never
feels borrowed for effect. To sum it up,
this is a good story well told by a writer
confident in his hero and himself. It’s
the kind of book that never really goes out
of style.
Jacques Ludefance is an interesting
character. From New Orleans, he moved
to a small beach town located in the
Panhandle of Northwest Florida. A scar
over his eye, he lives aboard his boat, The
Luna Sea, with an alligator named Emma,
which brings about the nickname he is
called by many: “Alligator
Man.” Now, although this may
sound like a pirate out of his century,
Jacques is actually a retired Navy man
who works as a P.I., and he’s about
to get a case dropped on him…so to
speak.
Sitting at his favorite restaurant, a lovely
Asian woman walks towards him and
begins to speak. Unfortunately, before all
words could be said, she slips from a
barstool and drops down on the floor
– dead. What the Asian woman does
get to do before going to meet her maker
is hand a brown envelope to the P.I. who
stashes it quickly, knowing that the police
will be looking all over for clues of any
kind.
Calling the sheriff to let him know about
the corpse, Deputy Erik Lawson appears
on site. Lawson is an old pal of Jacques
because they served together for a good
number of years. When all is said and
done, and quite quickly by the way, the
woman is found to be dead by natural
causes. A bleeding ulcer was her demon,
and the case is closed. Of course, Jacques
isn’t done yet. He believes that he
“owes” the woman a bit,
once reading over the information he
received from her. Not only was he given a
variety of documents, but he also received
a picture of a woman with her throat
slashed and stacks of $100 bills totaling
twenty grand.
It turns out this lady once had a very real
name and a home in Vietnam, until she was
“lucky” enough to marry one
of the wealthiest businessmen in the area: Jonathan Holler. She ended up being
called Lillian Holler, wife of the man who
runs the import-export business, Holler
Enterprises. Even Deputy Lawson is
suspicious of this man. After all, he
employees hundreds of people in the area,
it has been reported that he’s
exported various used machinery from the
U.S., but there are a great many questions
as to what he has been importing from
Asia.
These rumors run amok, and it
doesn’t take long to wonder if
Lillian, the wife, was one of his many
“imports” when it came to
human trafficking. Jacques goes on the
proverbial hunt; a hunt that will take him
from California to Dallas and back again.
A hunt that will have him placing a
“spy” inside the walls of
Holler Enterprises in order to see if
information can be gained. And a hunt that
will lead both of these people into severe
danger.
Get ready for FBI, ATF, bombs, saving an
alligator – you name it, this one has
it. This is a story filled with action and
suspense. In addition, with the background
this author has and the travels he’s
taken, the descriptions are extremely
detailed. You feel like you’re literally
standing in these locations as the complex,
entertaining mystery comes to life.
Quill says: Pulse pounding! This is not only
a memorable story, but you will not want
to wait long before crossing paths with this
P.I. again.
For more information on Treacherous
Estate, please visit
www.hollywoodturk.com
Treacherous Estate
Reviewed by Gary Sorkin
Pacific Book Review
In the ever popular genre of detective
stories is a subgroup referred to as
Hard-Boiled;personified by the characters
including Sam Spade by Dashiell Hammett,
Raymond Chandler’s Philip
Marlowe, and Mickey Spillane’s
infamous Mike Hammer. These guys were
tough, fearless and gals were hanging on
them like Spanish Moss in the swamps.
Award-winning author Behcet Kaya now
introduces us to the real swamp detective,
Jacques Ludefance, or Jack for short, in
his novel Treacherous Estate.
Along Florida’s panhandle from
Pensacola towards the west all the way to
New Orleans, Jack has made this area his
home. A man knowing his limitations and
honest enough to divulge them; such as
failing the F-18 Hornet pilot test while in
the Navy, and making the biggest mistake
of his life by having a one-night-stand with
a woman while married, Jack often is
mistaken by others. Unlucky in love and
sometimes a bit awkward with women, he
has the outward scar on his face obtained
when bitten by an alligator as a kid and the
inward scar of the loss of his loved wife to
divorce. Jack is seeking to find himself
while all the while bringing forth the frailties
of a real man; when he is drawn into a new
case. It seems the wife of a very powerful
businessman dies right before him while at
a restaurant, just a moment after handing
Jack an envelope containing cash,
passports and photographs of murdered
Asian women.
Behcet Kaya brings readers in at ground
zero – that is, knowing nothing about
the woman, the photos or why she was
giving Jack $20K in cash; but Jack took
this as a presumptuous contract and began
to investigate whatever leads he could
muster. Along the way he finds out the
dark culture of sex slavery, drugs,
pornography, gold smuggling and
corruption with military contractors by the husband of the deceased woman. Kaya
masterfully weaves the threads of Jacque
Ludefance’s life into a tapestry of
credible events displaying the entire
spectrum of a man seeking to find himself
as he settles a personal vengeance with his
investigation.
Jack’s character development is
truly the key to this story, as readers will
be intrigued with such a daring and cunning
protagonist; a Private Investigator, willing
to break the rules to find out what he
needs to know. The dampness and beauty
of the coastal regions, once devastated by
hurricane Katrina, are reinstated to their
inherent beauty by the vivid descriptions of
the area with its beautiful beaches,
restaurants and unbreakable will of the
inhabitants. The challenges Jack faces
solving this case are credible, believable
and humble in their realistic sequence of
events. There is more than one climax, so
to speak, as Jack uncovers human sex
trafficking from Vietnam and Malaysia
along with the corruption, money
laundering and murder that comes with the
territory.
This book is very fast paced, gripping
readers from the first page; with dynamic
quick chapters, each leaving the reader
with a bit of wit or a significant reveal. The
entertainment value of this book
won’t disappoint. The synergy of the
people, events and emotions, resulting in
the whole being greater than the sum of the
many subplots, makes Treacherous Estate
an excellent introductory novel of a PI,
Jacques Ludefance, who will win the
respect of all readers. A character worthy
of the mystery genre, and one we certainly
hope to see again.
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