New Release: The Crime Beat is Here!

I’m excited to announce that The Crime Beat is officially out!

At around 700 pages—roughly three times the length of the Thomas Austin books—this is a truly epic crime drama. 

You can find the ebook and paperback editions on Amazon now, and signed copies will be available on my website in the next 2-3 weeks.

Originally published years ago as a series of nine novellas, I’ve now expanded and refined the story into one complete volume. While there’s still a central mystery at its core, The Crime Beat leans more toward the thriller genre compared to my other books. However, like my Thomas Austin and S.W.O.R.D.series, while there are some truly horrible villains, the main characters are flawed but likable. The book doesn’t just follow the crime—it follows their lives as well.

Below are images of how I imagine the two main characters of The Crime Beat. They’re an unlikely pair working together to solve this crime: Jane Cole, a crime reporter dealing with the mysterious death of her husband, and Robert Warren, a suspended NYPD cop who’s struggling to get his life back. This was actually my first time writing a cop-and-journalist duo—similar to the setup in the first two Thomas Austin books.

Fun fact: I was briefly a reporter in New York City, writing for Newsday (Long Island’s newspaper) and the Poughkeepsie Journal. I had always wanted to be a fiction author, but I figured I should do something more practical—so I chose journalism. Of course, given the state of the media industry in the late 2000s and early 2010s, that turned out to be one of the least practical choices I could have made. 😂 I still have fond memories from that time, which is part of what led me to make Jane Cole a journalist in The Crime Beat.

And for those wondering, yes, there’s a dog in the book. Here’s a photo of how I imagine him. Though, because of the international nature of the investigation, he can’t come along for most of the ride.

One unique aspect of The Crime Beat is its structure. While it’s now a single book, the story is divided into distinct sections that together form one cohesive story—almost like episodes in a season of your favorite TV drama. The images below are used in the book to separate each section. 

As you might have noticed from the images, instead of being set in the Pacific Northwest (though there is a Seattle tie-in), this book takes you across nine different cities—from major U.S. locations to stops in Europe and Japan, a few of which are pictured below. I’ve visited several of these places myself (my wife and I actually lived in New York City for several years), but for the ones I hadn’t been to, I did a lot of research—including watching walking tours on YouTube, where people film their strolls through different neighborhoods, showing the everyday sights and sounds of a city.

If you enjoy my Thomas Austin and S.W.O.R.D. series, I think you’ll really love The Crime Beat too. I’d love to hear your thoughts if you’ve already started reading—feel free to leave a comment below. I do my best to reply to everyone.

The Crime Beat is available now in ebook, paperback, and Kindle Unlimited on Amazon, with signed copies coming to my website in just a few weeks. You can also find my Thomas Austin and FBI S.W.O.R.D. series on Amazon, with signed copies already available on my website.