Mac MacArthur
Mac MacArthur is a retired, disabled Ann Arbor detective. In Joseph McConnell's series of novels, Mac is drawn back into crimes high and low, gradually working his way out of one mentor role and into another. The recurring cast includes two women, one who is becoming an old hand herself and gaining an executive position in the process, one who is casting around, looking for a rebellion to support. And alongside the humans, there are always the dogs, typically German Shepherds, lending their support and abilities. All the books are available on Amazon Kindle or as print on demand paperbacks.
Book 1: Many Believable Lies
What you don't know can kill you. A young man is found lying on the runway at the Ann Arbor airport, clearly executed. The FBI is showing unusual interest. A man with money that came from the African arms trade ends up in the small Michigan town of Sturgis. A lot of cops from a city near Detroit’s Metro Airport go down for corruption. And a Sergeant in the army of El Salvador shows up for a little carousing in the big city, sporting a snake-bitten arm.
MacArthur brings his skeptical mind and his crippled body to the investigation, helping detective Jenn Langton and a young Fed, Andy Patel, find a way through the weeds and the decoys thrown down by sophisticated and unsophisticated crooks.
Book 2: Clash by Night
Beware of other people's dreams. A bizarre Steampunk device left in a garage shoots a history professor, sending Mac, Jenn Langton, Andy Patel, and the German Shepherds on a strange hunt. From the Nigerian Civil War to the Ann Arbor Art Fair, they find hints and traces of harm done forty years before. In a story that brings in mechanical engineering, old sewing machines, a touch of romance, and even a brief lesson on speaking German Shepherd, Clash by Night is another journey through a Midwest that's quite a bit darker than everyone expects it to be.
Clash by Night introduces Jeri Klein, an ambiguous character and one who will become a part of the series' core team over the following volumes.
Book 3: The Least Weasel
Be careful what you believe. Running like a stream from the Ness of Brodgar to the wild shores of Georgian Bay and into the swamps of shady finance, beliefs twist the lives of the characters. One Chief Financial Officer is dead, and his replacement vanishes. Drug dealers and sexual harassers are being assaulted. There's a wedding, a great lakes freighter broods on the face of the waters, and Mac tests his own world view. Even the German Shepherds have their ideas about what you know and what you think you know.
Book 4: A Lair for the Wolves
Mind what you promise. MacArthur stumbles into an intricate series of confused events. A parking lot shooting, an Internet troll, a wide-eyed technical entrepreneur, a little known Civil War general's autobiography, theft of classified information by a Crimean phony, and a pack of gray wolves all appear, taking Mac, Jenn Langton, Andy Patel, Jeri Klein, and the German Shepherds deep into the wilderness of Ann Arbor's technical frontiers.
Book 5: Driven by the Trades
And for MacArthur, it's a last-minute intervention; for an old man, driven to a quiet place, it's a second chance to save someone; for two idiots, in a panic and shooting at each other in the woods, it's a prank, played on them by fate.
