Showing results by author "Blair Howard" in All Categories

An elite force of private military contractors. A ragtag band of aging war heroes and civilians. It began with a simple kidnapping. It ended in an all-out private war. In Harry Starke’s world, nothing is ever quite as it seems. His wife is lying in hospital in a coma. His best friend and business partner is not who he says he is. Once again Harry says never again, but when his intellectually disabled uncle is kidnapped and becomes a pawn in a deadly game of cat and mouse.

On a cold morning in October, 1987, Ohio State Patrol Officer Dan Walker finds an odd box on a quiet, county road. Twenty-five years later, in 2012, and more than 600 miles away, a young woman vanishes without a trace and another is found dead from what appears to be an overdose. In 2015, street-smart Lieutenant Kate Gazzara is suddenly transferred to the Cold Case Squad and assigned her first case. But as she painstakingly goes over the file she discovers a connection to all three incidents. Is there a serial killer on the loose, one who has been killing for almost three decades?

Three Days in Hell, action-packed from start to finish, is the story of Confederate General Bushrod Johnson's Chickamauga as told through the eyes and words of one of his staff officers, Major Chester Rigby. The author takes you onto the battlefield as no one has done before. He plunges you right into the center of the action, which doesn't let up until the very end. It's a story of heroism, desperate deeds, and death and destruction on a scale the likes of which had never been seen before.

On a dark day in April 1865, a band of former Confederate guerrillas slaughtered more than 40 Comanches, most of them women and children. This began a six-month reign of terror along the Santa Fe Trail as Comanche chief, White Eagle, took his revenge. The US Cavalry was assigned the task of tracking White Eagle and his warriors down. Lieutenant Colonel Ignatius O'Sullivan's orders were to either bring them in or kill them.

Isla Tansy Mortenson Wallace was a noted local neurosurgeon, wife of local veterinarian Jim Wallace, and one of Chattanooga’s movers and shakers. That is until she was found dead on her own property. Did she fall off her horse? Was she thrown? Was she murdered? And if she was killed, by whom, and how, and why? Why does Lt. Kate Gazzara not want Harry Starke anywhere near the case? Lots of questions and no answers.

During the last few days of the Civil War, a company of Confederate raiders rode into the small Kansas town of Elbow. There they raped, pillaged and murdered among the local populace, thus triggering a chain of events and a chase that extended for more than 1,000 miles across the grasslands and mountains of Kansas and the deserts of New Mexico.

On a balmy day in April 1863, Union Colonel Abel D. Streight, at the head of a brigade of federal infantry, set out on a 220-mile ride to destroy the Western and Atlantic railroad at Rome, Georgia. The most fascinating thing about the raid is that Streight's brigade of four infantry regiments, almost 1,800 soldiers, was mounted on mules, a huge problem in itself; few of his men had ever ridden a horse, let alone a mule.

You'll find all of the information you need to plan your trip and make it a great success. The English Cotswolds are a chain of undulating, limestone foothills that encompass a quiet, idyllic world of sleepy little towns and villages nestled among the hills and dales. Rising to just over 1,000 feet at the highest point on Cleeve Hill, the Cotswolds are spread across a half-dozen West Midland counties, including Gloucestershire, Avon, Wiltshire, Hereford and Worcester and Oxfordshire.

The hills of horse country, Shenandoah Valley, the Blue Ridge Mountains and numerous wineries are among the state's offerings. Here's a guide to the national and state parks, the cities, towns and villages and everything in between. Places to stay and eat, along with recommended fall foliage tours.

When a well-known local socialite’s body is found during a round of golf with his father, Harry Starke suddenly finds himself embroiled in what quickly becomes a very thorny murder investigation. Who killed Angela Hartwell and why? The answers lie somewhere along a twisty-windy path through the patrons and morals of an exclusive golf club where the members are seldom what they seem, and their goals are infinitely more complicated than a simple round of golf. Harry Starke’s investigation takes him into a world he’s very familiar with. A world of affluence, privilege, and corruption.

Harry Starke loves a cold case, but this one is really cold, more than a hundred years cold. Family Matters is a tale that takes place on the lonely coast of Maine, where Amanda, a true believer in the paranormal, has inherited—you guessed it—a haunted house. At least that’s what the rumors say. It all begins when Amanda inherits the house, substantial assets, and a large sum of money from her grandmother. The windfall comes with a request to look into the disappearance of Elizabeth, Amanda’s great-great-grandmother, more than a hundred years ago.

Emily Johnston is GONE. She’s been GONE for more than a week. She’s also the daughter of Harry Starke’s one-time boss and nemesis, Chattanooga Police Chief Wesley Johnston. Harry and Chief Johnston haven’t seen eye-to-eye in a long time, but when Johnston needs help, he knows there’s only one man he can turn to. But Johnston’s jurisdiction ends at the city limits, and when Emily’s body is discovered in a remote part of the county, Harry has to deal with the imperious sheriff Israel Hands and two incompetent county detectives.

In a small but exclusive subdivision of Chattanooga, a devastating house fire leaves a family of five in ruins. The blaze claimed two victims leaving behind a shattered community and a lot of unanswered questions. As Captain Kate Gazzara and her team of dedicated investigators delve into the case, they uncover shocking secrets about the family and their troubled past. With each twist and turn, the evidence points more and more towards foul play, and it becomes clear that someone wanted this family dead.

The Nicolette Percy case was a nightmare. She solved it, but the solution generated more questions than answers. Captain Kate Gazzara, suspended from duty and in danger of losing her job, is determined to find the answers and embarks on a one woman investigation deep into the heart of Appalachia. Within hours of her arrival in the tiny town of Loeb, Tennessee, she finds herself not only in danger of losing her job but also her life.

Private investigator Tucker Randall doesn’t have time for cold cases, but when Gary Fisher begs them to solve his brother’s murder eleven years ago before their father dies, the partners can’t say no. What at first seems like a simple cold case in a small Tennessee town explodes into a deadly conspiracy involving gunrunning, corrupt officials, and a series of execution-style murders. And at the center of it all stands a sadistic killer with a twisted concept of right and wrong.

Commodore Richard Morian and the crew of the Avenger find themselves at the forefront of the battle against the Blues. As they face off against unimaginable foes and navigate treacherous political waters, they must rely on their wits, their courage, and their trust in each other to survive. With new technology, advanced weaponry, and a fierce determination to protect their home planet and the galaxy at large, the Avenger is ready to take on almost any challenge.

A missing person, two murders, an enigmatic Irishman, and a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme bring Harry Starke, Captain Kate Gazzara and her trusty K9 companion, Samson, together again in a bewildering detective thriller that takes them deep into the seedy side of New York City,

On a balmy afternoon in May 2002, wealthy stockbroker Peter Nicholson was turkey hunting with three friends in Prentice Cooper State Forest when he tripped, fell on his shotgun, and accidentally shot himself … dead, but did he? Fifteen years later, as a last resort, Nicholson’s mother asks Harry Starke to find the truth. As we all know, Harry loves a cold case, but … as always, there’s a twist in the tale.

Maggie Hart, a student at UTC, was abducted on Labor Day. Her body was found five days later on the RiverPark. She’d been strangled. She wasn’t the first, nor would she be the last. Harry Starke, recovering from a near-death experience, is dragged reluctantly into an investigation that quickly turns into a cat and mouse game between Harry and a very clever killer, Harry being the mouse. Emoji is an action-packed, lightning-paced story, with an explosive finale you’ll not see coming.

Five years after physicist Mark Holder discovered the Slipstream Drive in 2058, humanity reached for the stars and began to colonize the galaxy. For centuries, humans continued to populate system after system without encountering intelligent alien life. Some twelve hundred years later, after many generations of relative peace, in the year 3278, human space is invaded by a powerful and mysterious enemy. To these invaders the very concept of free will is heresy. Their crusade—to eradicate humanity. The war begins, and the fight for the survival of the human race is on.