This is one of those books where the title grabbed me at the same time as the cover.

Hawk MacKinney is a prolific writer and I am surprised I am not familiar with his work.

I must remedy that and I will start by sharing Blood and Gold with you.

BLURB

Blood and Gold, the third book in The Craige Ingram Mystery Series, once again tests the instincts and skills of retired Navy SEAL/part-time private investigator Craige Ingram. Lust, greed, body parts and unrestrained wild sex parties are what await Craige Ingram when he leaves the comforts of his South Carolina home to visit his former SEAL buddy, Detective Spinner Krespinak. Set in the Colorado underbelly of a sordid sable and faux glitz ski mecca, Detective Spinner Krespinak suspects drugs have made their way to the snowy playground that is Aspen. An Olympic ski hopeful is brutally murdered, Spinner vanishes, and Craige Ingram is shot as events spin out of control with a Catch-22 no one anticipates.

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 EXCERPT

Spinner’s high mountain, ski slope bronzed hand ruffled through his hair.  He flipped another page, “That’s the third one, counting the other mismatched body parts as one and two.”  Frowned.  “There’s not much more here than with the others.”  Handed Craige Loopy’s prelims. “Take a look at those…lemme know what you think.”  Krespinak brown eyes bayoneted the blue stick-‘em pasted to the center of his monitor, “…mm…interesting phone memo.  Seems Hizzoner the Mayor is concerned.  Wants to keep the lid on.  Claims he doesn’t want to scare away business.  Real fact behind his fume-an’-fuss is all about not wanting to scare away votes in the upcoming elections.  Media’s already nosing around about this morning’s torch job—that ought to rattle his cage.  Stroking a yancy politician doesn’t gripe me, but if he was serious we could use some additional personnel pavement pounding for answers.”

Ferron said, “Loopy said she hadn’t gotten the final results on the mitochondrial DNA runs.  But from what she’s seen so far, she said it doesn’t look like this latest one even comes close to a match with any of the previous body parts.  Time of death is iffy as well.  If the body was left outside in the subfreezing temps, Loopy said it could stretch the time interval.  Her best guess is within a week or two of the others.  Only difference this time, we have a whole body.”

Craige asked Ferron, “When did the first one show up?”

Ferron thought for a moment, asked Spinner, “When did we get the first one?  A little over two months ago?”

“Something like that…date’s logged in the case file,” Spinner said.  “What bothers me most is not what we have, but what we don’t have.  Along with no IDs and no statewide missing person reports, there’s not even a close to a match to any of the age ranges Loopy suggested.”

“You think the killings are random?”  Craige said.

“No—I don’t think they’re random.  But I’m one of the few who feels that way.”  Spinner thought of the grisly pieces in the morgue cooler.  He didn’t like prowling for motives.  Liked it less their coming up empty with damn few answers.  Sure didn’t like the doubts gnawing his innards.  “I’m stuck at which came first—chicken or the egg quandary.  Which victims were intentional targets?  Which ones might’ve just been in the way; killed to make sure there were no awkward inconvenient witnesses.  If they are serial killings, we’re not seeing any time-pattern between kills.  There has to be a reason for the times between each victim, and why are we finding only pieces?”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

With postgraduate degrees and faculty appointments in several medical universities, Hawk MacKinney has taught graduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem. In addition to professional articles and texts on chordate neuroembryology, Hawk has authored several works of fiction.

Hawk began writing mysteries for his school newspaper. His works of fiction, historical love stories, science fiction and mystery-thrillers are not genre-centered, but plot-character driven, and reflect his southwest upbringing in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. Moccasin Trace, a historical novel nominated for the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award, details the family bloodlines of his serial protagonist in the Craige Ingram Mystery Series… murder and mayhem with a touch of romance. Vault of Secrets, the first book in the Ingram series, was followed by Nymrod Resurrection, Blood and Gold, and The Lady of Corpsewood Manor. All have received national attention.  Hawk’s latest release in the Ingram series is due out this fall with another mystery-thriller work out in 2014. The Bleikovat Event, the first volume in The Cairns of Sainctuarie science fiction series, was released in 2012.

“Without question, Hawk is one of the most gifted and imaginative writers I have had the pleasure to represent. His reading fans have something special to look forward to in the Craige Ingram Mystery Series. Intrigue, murder, deception and conspiracy–these are the things that take Hawk’s main character, Navy ex-SEAL/part-time private investigator Craige Ingram, from his South Carolina ancestral home of Moccasin Hollow to the dirty backrooms of the nation’s capital and across Europe and the Middle East.”

Barbara Casey, President

Barbara Casey Literary Agency

 Website  /  Amazon  /  Barnes & Noble 

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To grab you copy of Black and gold, or any Hawk MacKinney novel, click on the cover below.

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