A Leprechaun's Lament

A Leprechaun's Lament
Author: Wayne Zurl
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2016-01-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1680462539

Start with a simple background investigation and then find your subject lying face down in a peaceful Smoky Mountain stream--assassinated. Just another walk in the park for Chief Sam Jenkins.What does a cop do when a routine chore turns into a nightmare? When a simple investigation into a man's background sends you crashing into a stone wall at the end of a blind alley does finding your subject murdered simplify your life? Sam Jenkins handles a case that spans the decades and the globe from his little police department on the "peaceful side of the Smokies."

A New Prospect

A New Prospect
Author: Wayne Zurl
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2016-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 168046387X

Sam Jenkins never thought about being a fish out of water during the years he spent solving crimes in New York. But things change, and after retiring to Tennessee, he gets that feeling. Jenkins becomes a cop again and is thrown headlong into a murder investigation and a steaming kettle of fish, down-home style. In true Jenkins style, Sam turns common police practice on its ear to insure an innocent man doesn't fall prey to an imperfect system and the guilty party receives appropriate justice.

A Bleak Prospect

A Bleak Prospect
Author: Wayne Zurl
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2018-03-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 168046633X

Sam Jenkins joins a combined task force hunting a serial killer called The Riverside Strangler by the local media. Complications arise when the lead investigator, the county sheriff's chief deputy is arrested and charged with police brutality. ¿When Sam develops the evidence to arrest the Strangler, everyone should be pleased, but subsequent actions taken by his mayor and the city council affect everyone at the Prospect Police Department and suggest that life there will never be the same.

A Touch of Morning Calm

A Touch of Morning Calm
Author: Wayne Zurl
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2016-06-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1680463012

Sam Jenkins's experience as a New York detective and Tennessee police chief may be varied, but none is more interesting than his encounter with Korean organized crime.Two former call girls, hoping to establish a legitimate massage therapy business in Prospect, ask for Sam's help after a Korean mobster attempts to extort protection money from them. Jenkins agrees to investigate but wonders, is their business really aboveboard?Sorting out truth from fiction in this complicated investigation becomes only a minor problem for Jenkins after a Korean girl, employed by the ex-hookers, is found murdered. And the trouble doesn't stop there. When bodies begin piling up, Sam finds it difficult to link the victims other than by their ethnicity. That's when he again turns to the women in his life for assistance in his police endeavors. His wife, Kate; desk sergeant, Betty Lambert; and TV news anchor, Rachel Williamson, all contribute significantly to the successful closure of two murders in Prospect and finding who killed a pair of thugs in nearby Knoxville.As often happens, an old colleague from Sam's days in New York visits his former boss and the touristy town of Prospect, Tennessee. Retired Detective Fred Mazzio becomes intrigued with the murders and volunteers to team up with Jenkins's assistant, John Gallagher, another ex-New York cop, and follow the undeveloped leads. The two former partners bicker constantly, but lend their fifty years of police experience to the investigation.

Honor Among Thieves

Honor Among Thieves
Author: Wayne Zurl
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2017-02-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 168046440X

Cops run into all kinds of characters on the job. But when Chief Sam Jenkins meets four people from his former life as a New York detective, it throws him for a loop.The first was a low level gangster named Carlo "Carly Nickels" DeCenzo--lying on a slab in the Blount County morgue with Sam's name and phone number written on a scrap of paper in his pocket.Next there's Gino Musucci, infamous New Jersey crime boss who says he wants to retire and relocate--to Sam's town of Prospect, Tennessee.And there's Dixie Foster, Sam's former secretary and the woman who wanted to steal him away from his wife. Sam wonders why she's turned up after eighteen years.With Carly's murder still unsolved, another body shows up in a Prospect motel--that of a retired detective from Sam's past. And then Sam receives a letter from an old mobster who warns him about a contract on his life.Is this any way for a cop to spend his time on the "peaceful side of the Smokies?"

Strange Worlds

Strange Worlds
Author: Victoria Pearson
Publisher: Victoria Pearson
Total Pages: 117
Release: 2013-05-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1484955110

Slip into fifteen dark tales that show the world through a strange new perspective. Take your imagination on a journey that begins before birth and continues long after death, stopping off to marvel, tremble and wonder at the strange worlds in between.Meet zombies, vampires, leprechauns, even a genie, as you have never seen them before. Ponder what the world feels like for a child as yet unborn, spend a sleepless night with a would-be murderer, and see what becomes of the angel who trades places with one of the most vulnerable in our society. Find out what life feels like when you can no longer rely on your senses, when you have no-one left to trust, not even yourself...If you like your short fiction shrouded in darkness and sprinkled with the strange, then this is the collection for you.Leap into the unknown, and see the world through someone else's mind...

Heroes and Lovers

Heroes and Lovers
Author: Wayne Zurl
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2016-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 168046244X

TV reporter Rachel Williamson helps Chief Sam Jenkins with a classic fraud investigation. However, the case puts Rachel in jeopardy, and her abduction by a mentally disturbed man changes her life forever.Eventually Jenkins uncovers a significant clue and leads a team deep into the Smoky Mountains to rescue his friend. But once Rachel is safely home, they discover her problems are far from over.

Murder in Knoxville

Murder in Knoxville
Author: Wayne Zurl
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2017-06-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1680465074

Sam Jenkins is the new police chief in town and everyone wonders, will Prospect, Tennessee ever be the same? A LABOR DAY MURDER and A MURDER IN KNOXVILLE take the reader into the world of domestic violence with a smattering of political corruption. In BULLETS OFF-BROADWAY, the investigation leads Sam into the life of a victim who spent his leisure time reenacting the days of the old west and was killed with an antique revolver. The hard-boiled story of SCRAP METAL AND MURDER begins with a simple larceny and quickly escalates into the murder of a building contractor, infidelity and more suspects than you can shake a claw hammer at. And the off-beat stories, BY THE HORNS OF A COW and its sequel SERPENTS & SCOUNDRELS show the more bizarre side of police work as Jenkins looks for a stolen fourteen-foot-tall statue of a dairy cow and ends up among a group of snake handling fundamentalists who use their serpents in a deadly manner.