Mike Downs Mysteries

Coming Soon:   Novac's Way 
  

 

An excerpt...

1937 Los Angeles CA

 

Jack Novac rolls gently out of bed, stepping lightly to the bathroom so as not to wake his wife. He runs a cold razor over his lathered face noting that his left eye seems less cloudy. His left hand resting on the basin still aches, the fingers gnarled from hammer blows, his eye damaged by a vicious kick to his head delivered by a fanatical Nazi. 

 

As a professional racing driver, Jack went to Europe after winning the Indianapolis 500 to capitalize on his fame.  Smashing international speed records, Jack traveled the continent where he met Maddy Rosen, a sports journalist. The Nazi Count Von Steuben, hated the brash American Jack Novac and everything he stood for from the time they first met. The Nazi arrested Jack on a trumped-up espionage charge, torturing him to try to make him sign a false confession.

Wiping away the lather Jack winks at the mirror; all that is behind him now and life is good, he is happy to be alive and home in California. 

At thirty-four he is back in good physical shape. His jet-black hair is smoothed straight back with a Clark Gable-like mustache that complements his square-jawed face.

Before the Nazi closed in, Jack won a huge amount of money racing his Miller front-drive racing car against the might of Ferrari. He and Maddy then survived a harrowing escape across Europe, Nazis at their heels. They married shortly after arriving back in Novac’s native California.

 

With America still in the throes of the great depression, Jack’s winnings from the Monza, Italy, race afforded him the ability to buy the house of his dreams in Santa Monica, undeveloped land in Orange County and an electronics plant in Culver City. He knows he’s a very lucky man even if the injuries he received ended his auto racing days.

 

Dressed and ready for work, he stops at a little diner off Lincoln Avenue to grab some coffee and toast on his way to the plant on Jefferson Avenue in Culver City. Usually in fairly good cheer, today he is feeling he’d like to be back racing. His business is going well; when he first started it took all of his time and dedication to make it work. Now with the business established, his mind turns to how racing fulfilled his need for speed and competition. The notion gnaws at him.

 

Driving south on Lincoln Boulevard he thinks about watching daredevils flying at air shows that fascinated him from childhood, even before he started racing. With his left hand not strong enough for auto racing he needs something to spark his blood. Jack had recently put his mind to getting a pilot’s license. Math and navigation were a struggle, but he enjoyed flying. The sense of freedom in the sky and mastering the control of the aircraft was very satisfying. Having endured multitudes of operations on his hand and eye, he feels fit enough to try racing airplanes.

 

Jack savors the salt-tinged smell of the sea. His memories of Europe under the control of dictators give him an even greater appreciation of America’s freedoms. He takes great pleasure in the beauty of California; while in the hands of the Gestapo he once thought he would never see it again. Turning inland on to Jefferson Boulevard he pulls the car’s visor down against the new day’s blinding sun. As he enters the parking lot he still feels a nudge of pride when he looks up at the lettering on his new two-story brick building that spells out NOVAC ENGINEERING.

  

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See the video announcement at the bottom of the page.
Excerpt from Agent Keys Steps Out

 

 

Now, at close to 70 miles an hour, Rian sees more red taillights in the distance.  Closing fast on the traffic, Rian makes up his mind to blow by the vehicles ahead as fast as he can. The Pontiac jounces over another hump. Too late, Rian realizes the traffic is a line of military trucks that are waiting to turn onto Skaggs Island Road.

 

He yanks the wheel hard left, the Pontiac slews to the tall berm on the road's edge, then rockets off the road, soaring out into San Pablo Bay. Crashing down nose first into the water, the impact sends Rian's head smashing into the steering wheel. Bloody and disoriented, he frantically struggles against the Bay's water pressure in a losing battle to get the door open.

 

Freezing water pours in from the smashed hidden compartments, quickly climbing up his body. Completely panicked, Rian pushes himself up to gulp a bubble of air. The black water swirls past his chin, cold darkness envelopes him. Screaming, he claws at the headliner to find another bubble.

 

Keys' jeep screeches to a halt; he and Larry jump out to stand at the edge of the road. They can hear Rian's muffled scream as the car goes under water. The Pontiac's lights glow eerily in the murky water before fading from view.

 

Larry stands by Keys in the cold rain watching the Bay's water consume the Pontiac. "I got the license number, Keys."

 

Agent Keys Steps Out is available through the Mike Downs Mystery Store and at Amazon.com, Goodreads, and Lenka's List.

 

 

 

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1943 San Francisco. The city is still edgy. Rumors of a Japanese invasion continue to circulate. 30 miles north of the city at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, men and women toil 24/7 building our best defense weapons.

 

A lonely sailor on liberty walks down Sutter Street looking for booze and women. What Navy submariner Nick Devin finds is a Nazi spy ring after sonar and radar tech secrets and big trouble. Torn between his service to America and the demands of the Nazi spies, Nick seeks the FBI's help to break up the spy ring. 

 

Agent Barry Keys, a tough FBI veteran, uses Devin to get to the bad guys. Keys is also determined to rip the heart out of the Nazi threat and to end its quest for America's latest tech secrets. Together Nick and Keys plan to take the spy ring down. What they get is far more than they bargained for.

 

Sounds of Deception is available through the Mike Downs Mystery Store, on Amazon.com, Goodreads, and Lenka's List.

  

 

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Bobo's Raid is on the shelves now 

 

 

Bobo’s Raid

1928 England

 

Count Reginald Bobrowski, dazed and bloody, sits down heavily. The speed record beast he was driving steams and groans, broken on the beach after the drive chain snapped nearly decapitating him.

   Bobrowski, son of a wealthy Polish Count and an American heiress, lives in England with his wife Alexandra. Her pet name for the Count is Bobo, a name he finds most embarrassing. Bobo dabbles in racing cars and managing his myriad business interests.

   On a lark he and his friend Clive Parry-Jones take their wives on a journey to the sands of the Sahara. After returning from the nearly disastrous trip Reggie meets a sinister Mr. S, head of a secret government department in London. S orders Reggie to go back to the Sahara to spy on a German expedition London thinks is seeking oil for their future war effort.

   Reggie and Clive modify a Citroën Kégresse half-track ambulance into a lightly armored desert traveler to cross the treacherous Sahara sands. They load the Citroën aboard a cargo ship and endure a harrowing sea voyage to Algeria. At their base in Ouargla, they find more intrigue. S has sent a cunning, brutally deceptive female agent to control Reggie’s every move.

   Reggie and Clive try to puzzle who is after what. The Germans roam the desert leaving death and angry Berbers in their wake. S's agent has an agenda of her own, and Bobrowski is caught in the crosshairs of both factions.

   Is Reggie just a rich lay-a-about fop or can he and his friend Clive get the job done? Join them on a gritty tale of murder and deceit across the desert as the Count dodges death to seek the truth.

 

 

Bobo's Raid is available now here, and at most online booksellers.