Showing results by author "Gregory Ashe" in All Categories

What would you do to get everything you wanted? Life is good for Dashiell Dawson Dane (just Dash). Things with his boyfriend, Bobby, are better than ever. Teaching at a local college has provided routine and stability. And to his complete surprise, his self-published novel is doing well. Really well. So, when a mystery writers’ conference comes to Hastings Rock, Dash is thrilled to attend.

After solving the mystery behind the death of his former friend in July, ex-Army Sam Auden has been aimlessly wandering the country. Everything had gone sideways in New York City, so when his phone rings three months later, the caller is the last person Sam expected to be asking for help. Confidential informant Rufus O’Callaghan has been struggling. His NYPD contact was murdered over the summer, and the man Rufus is head over heels for was driven away by his own undiagnosed trauma.

They say the show must go on. Thank goodness for intermission. Dashiell Dawson Dane isn’t thrilled that a new play at the community theater is based (however loosely) on his life. But when Dash’s friend Fox asks him to attend opening night, things take a strange turn: the actor playing Dash’s role seems to have been given a different script. Even stranger, the new lines trigger a bizarre response from the rest of the cast and crew—right before the lights go out and the box office is robbed.

When Teancum Leon, a wildlife veterinarian, and his husband, semi-reformed conman Jeremiah Berger, go to a conference in central Missouri, they’re expecting a short and uneventful trip. Tean will present a paper, attend a few panels, and network (under duress). Jem is looking forward to unlimited poolside drinks, some well-deserved couple time, and peace and quiet.

After Emery Hazard loses his job as a detective in Saint Louis, he heads back to his hometown - and to the local police force there. Home, though, brings no happy memories. Hazard's new partner, John-Henry Somerset, had been one of the worst tormentors, and Hazard still wonders what Somerset's role was in the death of Jeff Langham, Hazard's first boyfriend. When a severely burned body is discovered, Hazard finds himself drawn deeper into the case than he expects. Determining the identity of the dead man proves impossible, and solving the murder grows more and more unlikely.

When Dashiell Dawson Dane moves across the country to a small seaside town called Hastings Rock, he has one goal: get away from his ex. Okay, two goals - because he wouldn't mind a little help from his new boss, celebrity mystery author Vivienne Carver. With Vivienne's mentorship, Dash is sure he can get over this blasted case of writer's block and start telling his own stories again.

Emery Hazard is trying to plan his wedding, even though his fiancé, John-Henry Somerset, isn’t exactly making things easy for him. To be fair, Somers has been distracted lately; his father is running for mayor in a hotly contested election, and their hometown is splintering under the weight of divisive politics. In a matter of hours, those poisonous politics invade Hazard’s life in a way he couldn’t have imagined.

Emery Hazard and his husband, John-Henry Somerset, are settling into their new normal - at home, with the latest addition to their family, and at work, as Somers adapts to his new role and Hazard manages his expanding agency. The only thing Hazard is worried about is getting through dinner with his in-laws. When his father-in-law requests that Hazard and Somers join him for a weekend deer hunting, it sounds simple enough: Spend a night camping, give their foster son a chance to spend time with his friend, and prevent a parental kidnapping. But nothing is ever as simple as it sounds.

Rufus O’Callaghan has eked out a living on the streets of New York City by helping the police put away criminals as a confidential informant. But when Rufus shows up for an arranged meeting and finds his handler dead, his already-uncertain life is thrown into a tailspin. Now someone is trying to kill Rufus too, and he’s determined to find out why.

Somers enters a charity bachelor’s auction without telling his boyfriend. This story takes place before The Rational Faculty.

They say love makes fools of us all. It certainly makes idiots out of some of us. It’s Dash’s second Halloween in Hastings Rock, and this year, he’s determined to have a normal spooky season—he’s going to hang out with his friends, hand out lots of candy, and seize every available opportunity for snuggles with a certain deputy. Fate, though, has other things in store. When Dash’s friend Keme is arrested for murder, Dash assumes it’s a misunderstanding—after all, this is Keme we’re talking about. But it turns out, not everyone in Hastings Rock trusts Keme. Or likes him.

You don’t have to die to get a second line, but it’s easier than getting married. Second Line is a collection of short stories connected to The DuPage Parish Mysteries.

When a former colleague, Walter Hoffmeister, comes to Hazard and hires him to look into a series of anonymous death threats, Hazard eagerly jumps on the distraction. Hoffmeister might be a jerk, but he’s a paying jerk, and Hazard isn’t convinced the threats are serious. Until, that is, Hoffmeister is almost gunned down on Hazard’s doorstep. As Hazard investigates more deeply, he learns that more than one person in Wahredua has a reason to wish Hoffmeister dead.

It’s winter in New York City, and Rufus O’Callaghan is trying to make things work. He’s still got his job as a confidential informant, and he’s still got Sam Auden. The ex-Army drifter has moved in with Rufus, and the two men are trying to build a lasting relationship as Sam struggles to find his footing in the city.

Off Duty is a collection of short stories. It includes the following: Tickets to the Gun Show, When the Road Rises Up, Little Stoics, and Off Duty.

The call-out for the double homicide, when it comes, is a strange one: two men gunned down in a motel room, no witnesses, no real clues. Even stranger, the men were enemies, and no one seems to know why they were in that motel room together. Hazard and Somers set out to learn what happened, but they quickly find themselves mired in shifting factions: the ultraconservative political machine of the Ozark Volunteers; a liberal activist group protesting the local gun show; a reclusive fundamentalist church; even a hint of Mexican drug cartels.

Life happens when you’re not looking. Unfortunately, so do a lot of other things. Hazard and Somerset: Off Duty Volume 3 is a collection of short stories.

Three months have passed since Emery Hazard and John-Henry Somerset faced a madman and lived to tell about it. Three months have passed since Emery Hazard resigned from his job as a detective.Three months can be too long and too short, all at the same time. On Halloween, a professor at the local college is murdered in his apartment in front of dozens of witnesses. Then, the killer disappears. Somers is assigned the case and a new partner. While Somers investigates the murder, Hazard struggles to find purpose in his new freedom.

When an upscale restaurant opens in Hastings Rock, Dashiell Dawson Dane (just Dash) and his friends are excited to get reservations for the soft open. After all, winter on the Oregon Coast is the quiet season, and Dash is looking forward to a little excitement. (And, of course, dessert.) Instead, their arrival at the restaurant brings them face to face with Indira’s ex-husband, Mal. And when Mal ends up dead, Indira is the chief suspect.

When Emery Hazard and his husband, John-Henry Somerset, arrive home from their honeymoon, they’re shocked (understatement of the year) to find a boy waiting for them on their doorstep. Colt, 15 and eager to pick a fight, claims to be Hazard’s son. It’s almost a relief, then, for Hazard and Somers to be called out to assist the Dore County Sheriff’s Department with what seems to be an impossible murder: a man has been found stabbed to death in a stretch of woods, and the only set of footprints in the soft ground belong to the victim.