Paul Turner

Boys4U is the world's most popular singing group, at least among teenaged girls, and they have closed out their sold-out world tour with a series of shows in Chicago's brand new arena. The premier group of the inexplicably popular "boy band" trend, they've just finished their very last concert of the tour. While hundreds of tour members, well-wishers, label executives, and various hangers on wait to celebrate another wildly successful tour, the lead singer is found murdered, shot in the back of the head at close range, in the shower of the backstage dressing area. To make matters more distressing, the crime itself was almost impossible, there was tight security on the shower area at all times, the only other people back there were the other members of the band, and none of the dozens of people in the next room report having heard a shot. While the international press is engaged in an unprecedented feeding frenzy over the sensationalistic murder, Chicago Police Detectives Paul Turner and his partner Buck Fenwick have pulled the unenviable task of investigating the murder. But even, the initial appearances are deceiving and as they dig deeper into the case, they uncover more disturbing truths beneath the wholesome façade of Boys4U. Now they have untangle an increasingly complex web if they are to stop a determined killer before more victims are claimed.

In Mark Richard Zubro's Nerds Who Kill, Paul Turner is a widowed father of two teenaged boys, one of whom has spina bifida, rapidly approaching middle age, and used to dealing gracefully with all the challenges these things entail. Turner, however, is slightly different from others in his situation - he's openly gay and a homicide detective for the Chicago Police Department. Despite everything, his personal and family life is relatively placid. Until right now. This time, his life couldn't possibly get more complex and problematic: there's a Science Fiction and Media convention in Chicago this weekend - one of the world's largest such gathering - and his sons are both attending. In full costume. And Paul Turner, like any good father, is going with them. If the prospect of that weren't bad enough, one of the convention's guests - one of the field's most successful fantasy writers - is found murdered, mostly likely by the broadsword found rammed through the corpse's chest. In most circumstances, a broadsword would be a unique murder weapon, but this time there are hundreds of attendees carrying similar ones as part of their costumes. Including his own son. That one gruesome murder is just the beginning - the dead bodies amidst the revelers are starting to pile up - and Turner must sort through a confusing array of suspects in short order if he's to find the killer in time.

Since when are vacations ever relaxing? All Chicago police Detective Paul Turner is hoping for on his annual retreat from the city and his job is a little peace and quiet. This time he's headed to the Canadian Great North Woods for a couple of weeks with family and friends - his two teenaged sons, his lover Ben, neighborhood pals, and his long-term police partner, Detective Buck Fenwick, along with his wife. But, hopes of tranquility are soon crushed when Turner intervenes in a scuffle between a group of First Nations teens and a local bully and his cohorts. In the days following the incident, Turner and company find themselves the object of a series of attacks, break-ins, and sabotage of their equipment. Unable to get the attention of the local police, the events continue to escalate, culminating in the local bully's dead body being found floating in the water near the dock of their houseboat. In Mark Richard Zubro's Hook, Line, and Homicide, things are turning out to be not only one of the least relaxing vacations ever, but one of the deadliest.