Albert Samson

An Edgar Award Finalist: A teenager's search for her birth father sends Indianapolis PI Albert Samson on a quest that rattles the skeletons in an old-money family's closet It's a slow afternoon for Indianapolis private detective Albert Samson. He's just awoken from an office doze when a new client walks in. Sixteen-year-old Eloise Crystal recently discovered that her blood type doesn't match either of her parents', and she wants Samson to find her biological father.   Skeptical, but one hundred dollars richer, Samson begins some preliminary digging. What he unearths is the kind of dirt that makes people do desperate things-and it thrusts him into a shifting world of lies, deceit, and murderous secrets.

Indianapolis private eye Albert Samson must prove the innocence of an unstable war veteran on the hook for murder. Martha Jerome chose struggling PI Albert Samson because he's the cheapest detective in Indianapolis. She wants Samson to find evidence that will exonerate her son-in-law, Ralph Tomanek, who has been charged with manslaughter. A troubled Vietnam veteran who's been in and out of mental hospitals, Tomanek fired his shotgun and killed a man who may or may not have been reaching for his own weapon. Refusing to believe Tomanek is just a crazy vet with a bad case of PTSD, Samson goes to bat for him - and uncovers a nasty web of blackmail that could land the inquisitive detective on the wrong end of a gun.

PI Albert Samson takes on a new and deceptively dangerous case in the dead of an Indianapolis winter. After a Florida vacation spent at the horse races - turning a measly profit of eighty-two cents before expenses - private detective Albert Samson is back in slushy, freezing Indy, where, thankfully, it's a short walk from his living room to his office door. On this night, he opens it to find a hesitant stranger in an overcoat standing there. With some prodding from the PI, Bennett Willson admits he wants Samson to strong-arm the Broadway producer who stole his play. It turns out that the cleverly crafted story is as bogus as the client himself. Samson blows the lid off a simmering brew of hatred and revenge - leaving his own life hanging in the balance.

Indianapolis PI Albert Samson takes on a hospital, a pharmaceutical company, and the FBI. After his slowest summer ever, struggling and desperate private eye Albert Samson places an ad in the local paper, offering his services at a bargain price. Instead of new business, he gets an eviction notice. But his luck seems to change when Dorothea Thomas calls with an unusual tale of woe. Her brother, John, a chemist and pharmaceutical salesman, has been in a coma since a lab explosion seven months ago. Dorothea hasn't been allowed to visit her brother in an experimental wing of the hospital - and she needs Samson to find out why. The case leads him straight to the black heart of the pharmaceutical industry and the FBI, where secrets only reveal more secrets.

Indianapolis's least employed PI, Albert Samson, heads to southern Indiana in search of a missing woman. Facing insolvency and imminent eviction, private detective Albert Samson finally catches a break. Elizabeth Staedtler hires him to find her missing friend, Priscilla. But is Priscilla really missing or has she simply run away from her husband? Conducting an investigation in an unfamiliar city lands Samson a stint in lockup, two murderers on his tail, and a narrow escape from his own violent end that makes the dispossessed detective consider hanging up his gumshoes for good.

Investigating a fake birth certificate leads Indianapolis PI Albert Samson to ask why a woman would abandon her only child. A short television spot about the life of the average private eye gives Albert Samson hope that his economic blues are about to disappear. Better yet, his newest case looks promising too. He's just been paid a hefty retainer by Paula Belter, who has discovered that her birth certificate is a fake. There's no record of her existence. The trail leads to an unsolved murder and a highly publicized trial that dates back decades. But as Samson connects the dots, he doesn't end up with a pretty picture. As another murder sends the investigation spiraling out of control, the PI edges closer to the dangerous truth.

Indianapolis social worker Adele Buffington's caseload is unusually heavy: Solve a murder, find a missing mother and her young daughters, stay alive. Adele Buffington is working late when she's startled by an intruder. The next day a man is found murdered. The note pinned to his jacket reads, "Hands off, social workers!" Then, a woman and her two young daughters go missing. When Adele decides to launch her own investigation, with the help - or hindrance - of PI Albert Samson and Lt. Leroy Powder, she quickly finds herself out of her depth, haunted by echoes of her own past and by a killer who could obliterate her future.

Business is picking up for Indianapolis PI Albert Samson - until three intersecting cases land him on the city's Most Wanted list. Unusually, Albert Samson, Indy's least successful PI, is working three cases at once: An ecoterrorist group threatens to bomb the city, an obnoxious poet wants help murdering his wife, and a mysterious package needs a courier. Thankfully, the Scum Front has only blown up fallow cornfields so far. But the poet is not, in fact, married. And why would a beautiful socialite hire him as a delivery boy? The minutes tick down as the three seemingly unrelated cases collide and Samson races to find the missing explosives and nail the culprit.

Indianapolis PI Albert Samson gets his license back just in time to take on a high-profile, big-bucks case. After a falling out with a cop cost him his PI license, Albert Samson is thrilled to be reinstated. Within hours, he has two new clients. But the real payday arrives when he is co-opted onto the defense team for a man accused of a series of extremely ugly crimes. Of all the private eyes in town, why have the lawyers handpicked Samson for the biggest case to hit Indianapolis in decades? With cash in hand, Samson starts investigating. But what he finds isn't pretty.

Ask the Right Question: Private investigator Albert Samson gets a shake-up with his new client: sixteen-year-old Eloise Crystal is desperate to find her biological father. What the detective unearths is the kind of dirt that makes people do desperate things. Thrust into a moneyed clan of old secrets and killer deceptions, Samson discovers that the first lie may be Eloise's. The Way We Die Now: When Vietnam veteran Ralph Tomanek is charged with manslaughter, Samson believes there's more to the story. But why was a man with a history of PTSD hired as an armed guard in the first place? The answer is a dizzying case of blackmail that lands Samson on the wrong end of the gun. The Enemies Within: Samson's new client is Bennett Willson, a struggling writer looking for justice. It's a pretty glitzy case for the cheapest detective in Indianapolis: Strong-arm a big-time Broadway producer who allegedly stole Willson's play. Unfortunately, Willson proves to be as pure as the Indianapolis slush. What he wants is revenge. For Samson, finding out why could mean the final curtain call.