Murdock Cracks Ice [Hardcover]

Robert J. Ray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1992

The suspicious overdose death of a poor young student opens the door to a silent investigation by Murdock, who travels to Seattle to crack a drug ring that has been covered up by some powerful forces.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Veteran Southern California PI Matt Murdock returns to solve a drug-related mystery in Ray's ( Merry Christmas, Murdock ) engaging but uneven new mystery. Having seen graduate chemistry student Rollie Nielsen make big bucks selling a powerful type of speed called ice, readers won't mourn his murder. Murdock, hired by Rollie's father to investigate, wonders if there isn't more to the story than just a low-level drug killing. Are Colombian coke dealers trying to wipe out designer drug competition? After a teenage girl with information is killed in a hail of machine-gun bullets that rip apart Murdock's beachfront house, a Newport Beach detective warns the PI off the investigation. Murdock flies to Seattle, where Rollie went to school, and hooks up with the victim's friends--computer whiz Louis Chen and karate expert/artist Hana St. Cloud. The three are set upon by goons working for wealthy underworld king Big Daddy Borklund, whom they trick into revealing that he, like many others, wants something Rollie had formulated in a secret lab. The ensuing surprises are diminished by the tedious gimmick that determines the resolution.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Ray's most recent addition to this California-based series focuses on Murdock's attempts to break up a drug ring in Newport Beach and Seattle. Hired by the father of a recently murdered crack dealer, and spurred on by a bloody gunfight on his own doorstep, Murdock vows revenge. Through a sequence of rough-and-tumble events, including parking garage ambushes and motorboat subterfuge, he proves he can take it like a man--despite the intervention of thugs, CIA, and police. Not much here apart from quick action and steady violence, but sometimes that's enough.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 244 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press (May 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385299257
• ISBN-13: 978-0385299251
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,095,111 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

robert j ray phd
born in texas, 1935
snow ice wind heat dust-storms sunday school rule red brick streets horses cows guns
school tennis paper route heartache journalism sports editor growing pains modest HS aptitude for english, Latin, Spanish; zero aptitude for math
more school at Modesto, Austin, Georgetown in DC (russian, chinese), U-Chicago (hindustani)
gradschool at UT: MA, PHD
college teacher - U kentucky, beloit college, chapman U (OC)
nightschool teacher - San Diego, Irvine, Seattle
studied tennis with 4 teachers who helped me become an intuitive inner game
tennis teacher San Diego, Beloit
married, divorced, remarried, moved with wife Margot to Seattle (for the weather)three cats so far

books:The Weekend Novelist(+ revised Weekend Novelist), The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery, The Weekend Novelist Redrafts the Novel (London), Bloody Murdock, Murdock Cracks Ice, Dial "M" for Murdock, Murdock for Hire, Merry Christmas, Murdock, The Hitman Cometh, The Art of Reading: A Handbook on Writing, Small Business: An Entrepreneur's Plan (5 editions) The Heart of the Game (tennis), Cage of Mirrors

courses taught: memoir, starting your novel, keeping going on your novel, rewriting your novel, key to your style, dialogue, intro to screenwriting, writing practice, going deep with myth-base, verbs
recommended writing guru: natalie goldberg
writing/teaching partner: jack remick
students taught to writer better: approx 10,000
world-view: the worst writer can get better; the best writer can jettison the ego and strive for perfection
advice: write every day, use a timer, don't cross out, keep the hand moving, go for the jugular

work-in-progress: action-thriller and its glittery screen adaptation