Mike Doheney was like everybody else on Staten Island, well almost. He used to be an intelligence officer for the US Air Force then an operative for the CIA in Europe. He left Government service to return home to the Island to take care of his sister’s two kids; she was dying of terminal cancer. Her useless husband disappeared years before, no big loss. Doheney helped her out wherever he could. Now it was time to step up to the plate full time. It was not necessarily his dream of a lifetime to return to the Island and open a private security and investigations firm; but it was a good life and he really loved the kids. Everything had been fine for years, until one day Bart Finnerty, of the Staten Island detectives bureau, came to his office to notify him that Kaitlin-his adopted daughter, had been raped and murdered. Kaitlin had been dumped in an industrial area in Port Richmond. Finnerty, Mr. Personality, wanted Doheney to go to the morgue and identify the body of this beautiful girl, the prom queen and honors student, who never hurt anybody in her entire life.
Sir Hamish Andrew - Drew - MacKendzie is an American citizen with dual citizenship in the UK, an aristocratic title, and hereditary estates in Wales. He’s an honors graduate of Yale, and formerly an officer in US Air Force Intelligence., an FBI and CIA agent. He speaks six European languages, and several others. He calls himself a business man: owner of a boat yard, sport skiff manufacturer in Pompano Beach, Florida, and an insurance investigations firm. His antique steel whaling vessel, The Black Dragon, is retrofitted and available for charter, salvage and miscellaneous adventures. MacKendzie has no faith in law enforcement, he operates covertly as an enforcer and a high grade thief. If you lost property by theft or deception, then MacKendzie is your man. He will take on “special assignments” for a substantial fee. He uses the crew of the Black Dragon for covert support services.
Zack Savage is a mid range mystery writer who lives in an upscale community in New Jersey. He has never been nominated for a prize, like the Edgar, and never expected to be a New York Times best seller. His life is pretty normal, until he happens upon the murder of Theresa Caponetti, the wife of his friend and neighbor, Marco Caponetti. Zack also never imagined that he would discover a murder-much less know the victim, the family, or the neighborhood; but it happened one day anyway.
Trace Dolan is the head groundskeeper at Woodstock Golf Course - members only; it’s not a great job but it pays the bills. Trace has a couple of problems. He is divorced, a second generation alcoholic and compulsive gambler. He has the drinking under control, ever since he lost his drivers license for a DWI. He plays the nags regularly-flats, never trotters, and loses consistently. He picks up and resells lost golf balls to pay for his gambling habit. One day he sits under a hawthorn tree on the golf course to eat his lunch and have a Bushmills and beer and promptly falls asleep. A summer storm whips in, and backs out, but strikes the hawthorn in the process. The lightning bolt goes through the tree, into the ground, and up his ass-frying his IPOD on the way.
Gareth MacLeod was a pretty successful builder and home improvement contractor in Laredo Texas, a historic border town. Gareth was well known and liked, and everything was going along pretty well for him, until it wasn't. First, his beloved wife Sarah of many years contracted cancer, and by the time anybody knew, she was already end stage and beyond any hope. She passed away quickly, and was spared the agony of a painful, death. Gareth took it very hard, and slowed down his contracting business. He just didn't have the energy since Sarah's passing. His son Russell - Rusty - did a lot of the work, but his mother's death also hit him hard. Neither Gareth, nor Rusty, saw much of the sister-Gillian-who was living to the north in San Antonio. She had small kids and found herself struggling.
Zachary Savage, aka Zach, is a fiction writer who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his wife Allison. Like many writers, he is struggling near the bottom of the mid list authors. It isn't as easy as one would think to be a successful writer-it is a very competitive field. Zach has taken to hanging out with his neighbor down the street, Elwood Bronstein, known to his friends as Woody, a criminal defense lawyer. Some of Elwood's experiences really interest Zach, and he kind of likes the guy-who professes to be the only Jew that was originally from Salt Lake City Utah. Surely there must be a few more, but it sounds good. Being criminal defense lawyer, Woody has a sardonic approach to life-if he does not get his client off, he has zero chance of getting paid. The long black hair tied off with a thong and the Harley Davidson only add to Woody's image. For a lawyer, Woody is a pretty likeable guy. Woody's wife Nancy is a Mormon, and her big ambition in life is to have a bunch of kids and raise a family. Allison is not sold on either Woody or on Nancy; she says that they are sufficiently weird as to make everybody else in Fort Lauderdale look normal. However she keeps her mouth shut a lot, because Woody is a friend to Zach, and Zach does get some decent material from Woody. Some of the material include a grouping of short stories and a promising manuscript with another in the works. She figures if it is working, leave it alone.
Jefferson Bozeman is a veteran of the Civil War, Union Army. Having once attained the rank of Sergeant, he became a bounty hunter. He is noticeable because he is one eighth Negro, an octoroon. He also carries a monstrosity of an Ithaca-sawed off 8 gage coach gun which he affectionately calls “the equalizer,” in addition to his outmoded Civil War revolver. He was in St Joe, Mississippi after a bounty, who was killed earlier. So he took off after another bounty Lazy Eye Bill Biggs. He chases Biggs to find out that Biggs, his quarry, was arrested by his former commanding officer and mentor, Colonel Rance Phillips. Phillips, now a US Marshall, is about to retire and start a new life in Montana with his brother AJ. Bozeman decides that bounty hunting is unpredictable at best and will sooner, or later, get him killed. So he decides to find Phillips and see if they can forge a new life together. He travels the same path across the southwest. In his travels, he acquires an on again- off again companion, a mulatto named Julius Caesar Simpson.
When Ragnar Thorson was a young boy, about 5 solars, things went bad in his young life. Previously his grandfather-Knute-was killed in a fierce battle with the subhuman Wendol, and was carried by the Valkyries to Valhalla. His father, EINAR, was too young to ascend to the leadership of Holgar as Thane. His cowardly uncle Stig usurped his birthright and sent Einar with the raiders in the hopes that he would be killed. Instead EINAR became famous throughout the known world. Stig had been taking too much in tribute from Einar and, when a dispute arose, one of Stig’s entourage attacked EINAR and Stig banished him .Einar had no: royal family, no grand father, a father banished under threat of death upon return, and an older brother who is not very motivated; who stood to inherit whatever was left of the shambles.
Theo Knight spent years on death row at Florida State Penitentiary for a murder that he did not commit; which his brother had done. They were a year apart, practically identical. They were both prominent members of the Grove Lords, an incredibly violent gang in Miami Florida, active in Coconut Grove and other areas. If it was illegal, the Grove Lords did it, none of them were choir boys, and the Knight Brothers were notorious. The government was almost right, except that Theodopholis Knight didn't do it, his brother Tatum did-he had a mean streak a mile wide.
David Morton is a criminal defense attorney, probably the best in Florida. He does not represent drug offenders or pedophiles, he only represents high profile case: mafia Don’s, Ponsey schemers, murderers, serial killers, RICO cases and similar charges. He makes an obscene amount of money, much more than he could ever spend in his lifetime. He defends the scum of the earth, and has grown to really hate what he is doing. However he just can’t adjust to giving up the cash, the power and the notoriety. Hiring bright associates to maintain the high profile practice. He also takes on an occasional case of someone who is being really screwed by the system and can’t afford a decent defense. He doesn’t do it pro-bono, because that would besmirch his reputation. Instead he pads the bills of the scum of the earth to pay for the unfortunates, he figures it is only fitting. What goes around comes around.
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