THE RAY BATES MYSTERIES - Police Procedurals for True-Crime Junkies and Mystery Buffs
A Detective John Bowers Mystery
Blue Butterfly is the first in a series featuring Detective John Bowers.
Tracking a call girl's killer through Portland's sleazy sex trade, John uncovers a police bureau prostitution ring and bags a political primetime player with an appetite for S&M. While the cops, ME and prosecutors touch all the bases in a job they sometimes love to hate, the Bureau's dirty little secrets begin to unravel...
A Detective John Bowers Mystery
It’s 1994, and veteran homicide detective John Bowers teams up with his partner Minola Raye to solve another grisly murder in Babylon — Portland, Oregon’s fringe district of losers and forgotten victims. Like hungry sharks, Babylon’s riffraff feed on the innocent and vulnerable, and only case-hardened cops like Bowers seek justice in a system that has no heart.
A Detective John Bowers Mystery
The CAMELOT CLUB is the third book in the Detective John Bowers series. He's a witty veteran with the Portland, Oregon, Police Bureau, a dedicated realist railing against the politically correct injustice in his life. The only mysteries Bowers hasn't solved in twenty-three years behind the badge are women, especially his exes. The last split cost him everything but his Fruit of the Loom.
A Detective John Bowers Mystery
Detective John Bowers is a street-worn homicide cop in the Rose City. He’s in shouting distance of retirement with a gurgling trout stream, Winnebago Chief and a brand new bride. But before he can surrender the badge, he catches another shitcan case. The victim is young, engaged to be married to her high-school sweetheart, obeying all the rules to keep safe when her life is snuffed out way too soon by pirates prowling the mean streets for easy prey. Now it’s John and partner Minnie Raye’s job to track her sadistic killer stalking the night and try one more time to find justice for the innocent.
A Detective John Bowers Mystery
Bowers and his Partner Minola Raye are on the trail of the killer who assaulted a young mother found shot to death in her car. The forensics point to a staged scene and unlike the television dramas, putting together a winnable case isn’t easy. Modern juries demand cold, hard facts, clear motives, stunning forensic evidence and scientific gurus to make sense of it all. Murderers watch the same crime shows detectives do, so it’s a contest to see who comes out on top. Just when it seems the game is over, there’s an unexpected twist that surprises everyone but the killer.
A Detective John Bowers Mystery
City Serenade is number six in the Detective John Bowers series. A rogue offender sidelines Bowers while a downtown serial rapist is disturbing the Peaceful, Green, Urban Oasis rep Portland likes to claim. When a second assault ends in a vicious murder, the stakes go up for the City, the cops and especially for Central Precinct’s Robbery/Homicide Unit. Once again, Detectives John Bowers and his partner Minola Raye start the case working from the inside out. The trail leads through a crowd of midtown white-collars from the landmark towers to the Follies Revue and the dregs of rejects and losers prowling the alleys and back streets below. How one thread weaves a connection from one face of the Rose City to the darker side may turn out to be the key to solving the case.
A Detective John Bowers Mystery
It’s a good day to die for lawyers. A deposition is about to begin in a large, metro law firm where the senior partner is breathing his last before a shooter barges into the conference room and redecorates with blood and brains compliments of his Glock nine.
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The shooter seems like a nice guy. Admits everything, asks for his lawyer and the only question unanswered by the Central Precinct detectives is the motive. Lots of folks have grudges against lawyers, but this killer’s reaction seems a bit extreme even for clients with a distaste for the legal system in general and insurance defense lawyers in particular.
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A Detective John Bowers Mystery
Kiss of the Cobra, the eighth in the Detective John Bowers series, reunites Bowers and his partner Detective Minola Raye on a desperate pursuit. This time the Portland Homicide Team tries to fit the puzzle pieces together after gruesome murders of young, single women with no plausible connection. The City is on DefCon 1 until women with the murderer’s victim profile are safe. Stranger to stranger killings are the toughest to solve, and the Detectives must use a Task Force to hunt down their suspect and stop him before he kills again.