Art Hardin is a middle-aged guy with a wife, three sons, a dog, and a black Olds sedan---and he'd be happy to earn his living chasing fraudulent insurance claims and snapping pictures of cheating spouses. That was his plan, anyway, when he'd retired from his position as a counterintelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Service branch of the government. Unfortunately, high-priced attorney Martin Van Pelham has other plans for the battle weary PI. Van Pelham's niece Karen (who he raised as his daughter) has gotten herself into some deep trouble, and Hardin's job is to make sure she stays alive to answer for it. The first problem he encounters is Karen's reluctance to cooperate with this plan, preferring instead to attack him with a camping hatchet. The next problem is a crooked drunk and abusive police officer named Randy Talon, who happens to be Karen's husband. Even with the help of Wendy, his bounty hunter wife, and Ron Craig, friend and ex-CIA agent, the case is already threatening to become dangerously hard to handle. This remarkably well-crafted story has the trademark qualities of superior detective mystery: deft plotting, lively dialogue, timely information, knowledgeable opinion, and acute commentary on the ways of the world. Private Heat is the beginning of a very exciting new series.
Robert Bailey spent five years as a corporate security director in the city of Detroit and twenty years as a licensed private investigator. His first novel, PRIVATE HEAT, an action-packed private-eye thriller, won the Josiah W. Bancroft Award at the Florida First Coast Writer's Festival in 1998 and was nominated for the 2003 Shamus Award, given by the Private Eye Writers of America.
A Vietnam-era draftee, he retired from the military as a reservist and a field-grade officer. An award-winning combat pistol shot, he returned to his first love, writing, when he was injured on the job and no longer able to work the street.
Robert has three grown sons and four grandchildren. PRIVATE HEAT, featuring PI Art Hardin, was published by M. Evans & Co. in the winter of 2002. A second Art Hardin mystery novel, DYING EMBERS, was released in March 2003, and a third, DEAD BANG, was published by M. Evans in January 2007. Also in January 2007, MYSTERY SCENE magazine named Hardin one of its top 100 private eyes.
Bob's latest projects include a fourth novel, Deja Noir, and a screenplay, For Love and Money, about an armored car robbery. His Art Hardin series is soon to be released in ebook format. Please visit him on facebook or at his website, robertebaileyauthor.com
