Friday, November 23, 2012

No Trust Among Thieves
The Jack Diamond Mystery Adventure Series Prequel


This exciting new eBook is NOW available in all the popular eReader formats and from all the best eBook retailers including B & N, Apple, and directly from Smashwords. 

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1253700

The Kindle Edition is also now available at Amazon.

http://.www.amazon.com/dp/B00A9LG4CS

Here is a synopsis of No Trust Among Thieves. As always, the first several pages have been made available for preview at your favorite eBook retailer.


No Trust Among Thieves is the prequel for the Jack Diamond, PI, Mystery Adventure Series.

Jack immediately finds himself in the uncomfortable position of being followed while driving back to his Las Vegas Office from an assignment. More annoyed than concerned he finally comes into contact with his would be pursuer only to find the whole incident was not in actuality an incident at all. Except for one very important aspect; it leads to a complex case of international intrigue with potential Homeland Security consequences.

It all begins as a seemingly straightforward request by an unlikely client to help recover what he believes may be an inheritance gone missing. In addition to Homeland Security, the Las Vegas Metro Police, an Idaho District Attorney, as well as operatives and informants in Singapore and Malaysia and border crossing officers in British Columbia and the United States get involved.

Most of the principal characters readers met in the first Jack Diamond Mystery Adventure eBook, CAUTION: Tram Approaching, are introduced in No Trust Among Thieves. These include Jack’s long time friend and confidant, Lieutenant Hank Mathis. Then there is Jack’s own version of a femme fatale, Melissa Blanchard. Melissa, some twenty plus years his junior presents Jack with an ever-present emotional dilemma. In short order Melissa develops a strong professional and an intriguing personal relationship with the private detective. To go any further with that aspect of the story would be telling way too much. Besides, it’s a lot more interesting and fun to discover for yourself in the book.

What about the original perpetrator at the center of the case? It turns out he seems to have made a career playing the role of an up-standing member of the community while betraying the trust of those who trusted him the most. His misdeeds come to an abrupt end as he, naively unaware that anyone is the wiser, is suddenly interrupted as he attempts to get some rest in a motel room in the middle of Nevada.

At the end of the day, a perplexed but persevering Jack Diamond still can’t be certain of success in recovering the alleged missing inheritance. The network of pilfering money manipulators who became involved through various nefarious means are found out as one by one they discover that there is no trust among thieves and ill gotten riches driven by blind greed seldom have a pleasant ending. 

    


Friday, May 25, 2012

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Thursday, April 26, 2012


Jack Diamond Mystery Adventures

 Featured Character Bios, Settings, Trivia


Jack Diamond, Private Investigator: Here’s what we know about Jack from the beginning. Other details tend to emerge from time to time in his various cases.
Jack, physique wise, seems to be about average coming in just shy of 6 feet tall and hovering around 185 pounds. When we first run into Jack he is in his late 40’s. No doubt, like all of us, he’ll take on a year or two as he tackles his various mystery adventure cases. As the years move on so does the hairline. His auburn brown hair is already beginning to she sign of receding along with a notable thinning spot on top.
Jack Diamond is not known as a womanizer in any manner, just the same certain women appear to find aspects of his personality attractive and tend to act accordingly. This alone leads to some interesting situations including a little romantic intrigue and an unexpected dramatic surprise or two along the way.
So far as we know, Jack Diamond has never been married and has no children. Though we never learn all the circumstances, Jack Apparently inherited a substantial sum of money while he was in his late 30’s and working as a freelance investigator. The inheritance allowed him to open his own practice, purchase all the necessary accruements, some maybe not so necessary, and hang out his shingle.
No private eye would be worth his salt without a quirk or two, principle of among them, Jack’s chronometer collection. His office is almost to the point of clutter with timepieces of all types and sizes. Jack is the first to admit that with one watch you always know what time it is, with as many as he has, you never know what time it ‘really’ is.
Jack would never consider himself a car buff, but he does enjoy good automobiles from the small sports car variety to four wheel drive SUV’s. When you first meet Jack Diamond you’ll find him behind the wheel of a black BMW 850 sedan with Nevada sunset design license vanity plate, LOC8EM. The big white Land Rover with heavy tint windows sports the plate, LOC8IT. Certainly beats having of those magnetic advertising signs stuck to the side doors. 
We know Jack Diamond comes originally from the Denver, Colorado area where he attended school up through university. From time to time more of that aspect of his past emerge through details in cases. Following college Jack completed his Marine Corps officer training at Quantico, Virginia. From that point all we really know thus far is that he was assigned to a special criminal investigation unit within the Commandant’s office. It was this early experience that established Jack’s eventual Career path as well as creating any number of contacts that prove valuable in his solving cases. 
Foremost among Jack’s early professional colleagues is his close personal friend and confidant, police captain Hank Mathis. Captain Mathis commands the Metropolitan Police Criminal Investigation Division. In addition to providing Jack with his official link to law enforcement, a contact which he utilizes frequently, the good captain is also Jack’s regular coffee buddy.
There are two other highly valued information sources that stem from Jack’s Marine Corps CID days. Jon Steele feeds Jack with a steady stream of generally reliable information concerning all matters related to transportation. While we find Jon Steele popping up frequently we really know very little about him or exactly how he manages to come by the information he provides Jack. This is one of those cases where Jack would be lost without him and is as curious as we care about how Jon really works, but he dare not ask.
Andy Thornton is Jack’s key source for all kinds of information relating to finance and banking matters. Andy play an especially important role in many of Jack’s investigations that evolve around some aspect of what is generally regarded as white collar crime. Like Jon Steele, Jack Diamond protects his sources believing the less he knows about how they come by the information they provide him the better for everyone involved, except for the ‘bad guys’ of course.

Melissa Blanchard: Otherwise known as ‘Mel’ to Jack Diamond and selected close friends. We first meet Melissa in ‘A Matter Of Trust’, the first book in the Jack Diamond series. I think you’ll find Melissa’s character becomes pretty well described after she enters Jack’s office and leaves him breathless and in the same condition on he departure.
Beside her stunning physical attributes that find her able to look Jack eye-to-eye then descending all the way down her perfectly endowed body to her long gorgeous dancers legs Melissa’s other stats are - - -; Oh yes, Raven hair, dark eyes, flawless olive skin and a sharp wit and brain to match.
Born: Boonville, Missouri (She is 20 +- when we first meet her.)
Grew up in Bloomfield, New Jersey.
Is now a student at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV). She was drawn there because of their highly taunted girls dance squad where her talents resulted in a partial scholarship.

SETTING: All the Jack Diamond Mystery Adventures begin and end in Las Vegas. From there the adventures come and go around the country and generally to far-flung corners of the globe as well. Jack’s office building the Bristol Office Park does not exist neither does his apartment complex. Many of the street names as well as certain business establishments are real, however they may not be exactly where they appear in the story. After all, these are works of fiction.


Thursday, March 29, 2012

Attention Kindle Owners, ALL models.

Did you know that the current novel in the Jack Diamond Mystery Adventure Series in now available at the www.Amazon.com Kindle Store?  I think you'll truly enjoy the read at a most affordable price. 

Monday, March 26, 2012





The synopsis for CAUTION has been revised so I have re-posted it here.


                                                                  SYNOPSIS

                                           CAUTION: Tram Approaching
A novel in the Jack Diamond Mystery Adventure Series
copyright 2012 by Philip Johnson

    Missing person cases generally fall into the dime-a-dozen category for Las Vegas PI, Jack Diamond. To be sure they help pay the bills though his basic lifestyle comes nowhere close to the flash and dash kitsch filled atmosphere of Sin City. That being said, Jack Diamond’s lifestyle is far from dull and boring.  
     There is always the exception of course and on occasion a case ends up with enough twists and turns to qualify for a classic theme park ride. In the instance of CAUTION: Tram Approaching, two murders and an unfortunate emotion wrenching accident provide additional intrigue to the case for Jack and his special (make that very special) associate, Melissa Blanchard.
     Initially, Jack is summoned to the office of the Western Sun Insurance Agency whose offices are in the same west of the Las Vegas Strip building as Jack Diamond. It seems an executive from a mid-west life and casualty insurance company represented by Western Sun has failed to return from what was purported to be a business trip to Las Vegas.
     Jack rarely, if ever, turns down a case from Western Sun, one of his leading sources of repeat business. Jack accepts the case in an appreciative, but not totally enthusiastic fashion. It didn’t require a lot of initial inquiry however before Jack sensed there was something more going on than yet another wayward soul who got over extended at the tables, over loaded in the lounge and over-sexed in a few of the more infamous ‘Gentlemen’s Clubs’.
     Once again Jack turns to his close confidant and personal friend, Captain Hank Mathis, head of the Criminal Investigation Unit in the Metro PD. Metro quickly places the name of the missing insurance exec on the ever-changing Clark County missing persons list. Even though the search progresses, it frustratingly lacks some critical ingredients such as sufficient clues to begin to produce a trail of sorts. In short order however, the pace begins to quicken when it becomes clear that the object of the search didn’t just decide on the spur of the moment to become another Vegas good–time-Charley.
     Don’t be tempted at this point in the book and run to any premature conclusions. You’ll probably be wrong for one thing and you’ll miss some meaningful tenderhearted emotional intrigue that is critical to the story conclusion. And this is to say nothing about a bevy of clues that could otherwise keep you on track, (pun intended). That track will take you on a train adventure in Easter Europe, which follows another train escape that begins in a most unlikely manner in Las Vegas. As events eventually dictate, tracks will indeed provide meaningful, but diametrically opposite conclusions.
     Readers Alert: As you read CAUTION: Tram Approaching, some of the characters may not be who they say they are and events aren’t always what they seem to be.



Thursday, March 22, 2012

Author seeking book reviews. 


If you haven't visited www.smashwords.com  recently you really should. You'll find a great selection in all genre's and price ranges from free and up. 


As for the new Jack Diamond mystery adventure, reviews are always welcome. As I have already mentioned, the first 48 pages are there to preview for free. Take a look. 


I have been asked recently for a more in depth character description of Jack Diamond. If fact I will be doing that in the next few days. Stay tuned.


As my favorite resident of Lake Wobegon, MN likes to remind us; Be Well, Do Good Work and Keep in Touch.