October 2005

St. Martin's Minotaur

The Devil's Own Rag Doll is a product of my love of hard-boiled fiction, the stories of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain and others.  The book begins to tell the story of Pete Caudill, a newly minted detective on the Detroit police force, who becomes embroiled in the investigation of the murder of automobile heiress Jane Hardiman.

Caudill must penetrate corruption and violent racism in Detroit while he struggles to maintain his own dwindling family ties.  As the city threatens to boil over into a full-blown riot, what Caudill discovers about himself and about his father's mysterious death will change him forever. 

Read some reviews of the novel here.