Aaron Tucker Mysteries

Aaron Tucker isn't a detective. An aspiring screenwriter, freelance reporter, stay-at-home dad, and expert on consumer electronics, Aaron actually defies all traditional characteristics of a detective. He's 5'4," and weighs less than Robert B. Parker's leather jacket. And he doesn't have any investigative training. But he's funny, down-to-earth, lovable, and resourceful. He has good and loyal friends, like Jeff Mahoney, the huge rental car mechanic who helps him out of tight situations, and Abigail Stein, his sexy wife, who happens to be a successful criminal lawyer, and whose advice comes in handy a time or two. So he's baffled when the richest guy in his New Jersey town, Gary Beckwirth, insists that Aaron, and Aaron alone, investigate the disappearance of his wife, Mary Beckwirth, who has inexplicably vanished from their home in the middle of the night. Aaron refuses Gary's desperate pleas, but once the editor of the town newspaper offers Aaron $1000 to write the story on Mary's disappearance, Aaron finds himself agreeing to investigate, despite his lack of investigative reporting experience. When the disappearance becomes a murder, he has no choice but to keep investigating, no matter how unqualified he may be.

Work-at-home dad, devoted husband, hustling freelance writer, aspiring screenwriter - all ways to describe the unwilling sleuth Aaron Tucker, whom one reviewer dubbed a combination of "Bart Simpson and James Bond". In A Farewell to Legs, the second installment of the Aaron Tucker Mystery Series, Aaron is back on the trail again, this time trying to ferret out the murderer of a former high school classmate, a D.C. lobbyist whose enemies finally stick it to him, literally - with a six-inch steak knife. The deceased leaves behind a bombshell of a widow, a secret bankroll of $13 million, and a cloud of political controversy, all of which lead Aaron to a barrel of red herrings. But in the life of Aaron Tucker, one mystery is never enough (though he'd be quick to tell you otherwise). He's also been delegated the odious task of tracking down Buzbee School's secret stink-bomber. And, much to Aaron's consternation, his wife, the beautiful attorney Abby Stein, is being stalked by a former client. All in a day's work for the diminutive freelance writer, who, as procrastinator extraordinaire, would rather be doing anything but investigating.

In this, the third Aaron Tucker mystery, Aaron, fresh from a trip to Hollywood to "take meetings" on his screenplay, finds himself dragged kicking and screaming once again into investigating a murder, this time of a man in a nearby town shot while walking his dog at night. The young man accused of the crime has Asperger's Syndrome, the same autism-related disorder that Aaron's son Ethan has had since birth. Aaron is hip-deep in the investigation when he's assaulted by visiting Visigoths - no, wait, that's just his wife Abby's brother and his family, come to visit for a week. But then a local mobster becomes aware of Aaron's poking around in the killing, and wants him to stop. It's going to be an especially interesting holiday season for New Jersey's funniest height-challenged amateur sleuth.