The Malone Mystery Novels

A spellbinding tale of deceit, betrayal, dark choices, and murder that reviewers describe as "gripping", "full of suspense and thrills", and "hard to put down". Inspired by a shocking true story, Come What May, the debut book in the new Ben Malone detective mystery series, is a high-stakes thrill ride through the gritty underbelly of the City of Angels.

Hollywood Division detective Ben Malone is caught up in a run of bad luck. The worst of it, his unfortunate entanglement in three separate fatal on-duty shootings in less than a year at a time when activists are protesting the use of deadly force by police and provoking riots all over the country. The spate of shootings has his LAPD superiors spooked and questioning his judgment. Is Malone too quick to use deadly force? Relieved from street duty, Malone is sequestered in Robbery-Homicide Division's Cold Case Homicide Section to keep him under wraps while he undergoes department-mandated psychiatric evaluation. His work-related problems compounded by a vindictive ex-wife intent on bleeding him dry financially sends Malone into a spiral of depression that soon has him drinking too much in the attempt to cope.

Initially resentful over his reassignment to the cold case section, Malone's attitude starts to change when his new partner, Jaime Reyes, introduces him to the files of a cold as ice, 23-year-old unsolved murder case. The decades-old murder doesn't fit the unit's criteria for reopening a cold case for active investigation, but the more Malone studies the case, the more obsessed he becomes with trying to solve it. He and Reyes embark on an off-the-books investigation that predictably creates even more problems. Especially for Malone. Pushback from powerful forces both inside and outside the LAPD determined to keep the truth buried with the corpse gets intense. But even when things get personal, Malone becomes only more committed to solving the case, come what may.