Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Gus Mackie and the Hot Tamale: Gus Mackie Novella series, #1
    Gus Mackie and the Hot Tamale: Gus Mackie Novella series, #1
    Gus Mackie and the Hot Tamale: Gus Mackie Novella series, #1
    Ebook102 pages1 hour

    Gus Mackie and the Hot Tamale: Gus Mackie Novella series, #1

    By Bob Moats

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    This book is a novella.

    Gus Mackie is not a Hollywood type private investigator, he not good looking, muscle bound or full of knowledge. He’s rough around the edges and is imperfect. His cases are few and far between but he gets free rent by living in his office. His closest friend is a Native-American Police Detective who acts as his conscience and covers his ass from getting in trouble. Gus has been hired by a man to find out if his secretary is cheating on him, even though the man is married. On top of that the man’s wife has had her half million dollar necklace stolen. Gus is conflicted when the wife hires him to find the necklace and tie her husband to the crime. Should he follow the cheating secretary, who may have the necklace and turn her in? Things get more complicated when someone is murdered and now Gus has to expose the killer. Was it the husband or the secretary. Or was it a man who fences stolen goods, just to get the valuable necklace. Gus has his hands full and between breaking and entering various places, his car is giving him headaches.

    This is the first novella of the series of Gus Mackie books.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBob Moats
    Release dateNov 4, 2014
    ISBN9781502247049
    Gus Mackie and the Hot Tamale: Gus Mackie Novella series, #1
    Author

    Bob Moats

    Detroit area resident, Bob Moats, has been writing short stories and plays for as long as he can remember. He has lost most of his original stories, typed or handwritten, in the numerous moves he has made from his hometown of Fraser, Michigan to Northern Michigan, to Las Vegas and back to Fraser, where he now lives. Moats became one of the causalities of unemployment a year ago, and had time on his hands to finally pursue a life long dream of writing a full blown crime novel. Thus was born the first book, "Classmate Murders".What followed was a series of seven books starting with "The Classmate Murders" which introduces the main character, Jim Richards, who has to admit he has become a senior citizen, reluctantly. Richards, one day, receives an email from a childhood sweetheart asking for his help, but by the time he reaches her, she has been murdered. His life turns around and he is pulled into numerous murders of women from his high school who he hasn't seen in forty years. Along with a friend of his, Buck, a big, mustached biker, they go off to track down the killer before he can get to one former classmate, Penny Wickens, a TV talk show host who Jim has just fallen for while protecting her. The killer is also murdering the women right out from under police protection, driving homicide detective Will Trapper crazy, and he slowly depends on Jim to help. There's humor, suspense, wild chases across suburban Detroit with cops, classic cars and motorcycle clubs; murder, mayhem, a good amount of romance and a twist ending.Jim and his crime fighters, continue in the other books, traveling to Las Vegas twice, back to Detroit and out to New York to solve murders involving dominatrix; mistresses; Bridezillas; magic and strip clubs.Book titles: Classmate Murders; Vegas Showgirl Murders; Dominatrix Murders; Mistress Murders; Bridezilla Murders; Magic Murders; Strip Club Murders and Made-for-TV Murders.

    Read more from Bob Moats

    Related to Gus Mackie and the Hot Tamale

    Titles in the series (8)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Police Procedural For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Romantic FICTION

      Jan 24, 2024

      ‘You’ll never guess what,’ said my little sister Debs. We were having coffee in the little cafe in the park, which wasn’t very adventurous of us because it’s only about 600 yards from her flat. I stroked my chin and pulled my glasses to the tip of my

      3 min read

    • Article

      ‘Sing to It’: Featured Fiction from Amy Hempel

      Mar 25, 2019

      If she was home at night in her husband’s bed, did he care what she did with her days? The post ‘Sing to It’: Featured Fiction from Amy Hempel appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Wuthering SLEIGHTS

      Jan 31, 2024

      The phone went for the fourth time that morning, and I had a pretty good idea who was calling. ‘It’s me,’ said my sister Deb. ‘Look here, do you think I have to finish all these books?’ ‘Up to you. Why do you ask?’ The phone went silent for a moment,

      3 min read

    • Article

      Take a Writer Like Him: My Complicated Love Affair with Kingsley Amis

      Aug 24, 2018

      1. As much as I may rack my brain, there are 15 minutes or so in the dark that I can’t account for and that I’ll never get back—15 minutes during which, I have to think, that creep’s hands were touching my body. It’s a weird thing to think about all

      12 min read

    • Article

      Epithalamium

      Jun 1, 2023

      Epithalamium
      16 min read

    • Article

      Wanted: ONE MAN

      Nov 29, 2023

      ‘We desperately need a man,’ said Mrs Beasley, the manager of our charity shop. ‘Speak for yourself,’ said my colleague Wendy, which was quite brave, as Mrs B is renowned across five counties for having no sense of humour. We’d just closed the shop,

      3 min read

    • Article

      POISON ON Pink Paper

      Dec 23, 2019

      POISON ON Pink Paper
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Duplex

      Jun 9, 2020

      I moved to Los Angeles to sing. When was this? August? June? I was twenty-nine, and those were shapeless months, when the days blended together and I refused to pull them apart. My landlord was unusually close to her adult son. His name was Jeffrey,

      21 min read

    • Article

      La Bohème

      Mar 1, 2022

      ON A SATURDAY or Sunday afternoon in the cold early months of 1988, I sat alone at a table for two in a Greenwich Village diner, twenty-four years old, hopelessly young, my notebook open in front of me. At the table next to mine were three people, al

      13 min read

    • Article

      Festival

      Sep 15, 2018

      My husband, who loved festivals, who was a great fan of festivals, wanted to get to the square in time for the first band at eleven o’clock. From bed, the dog and I watched him dress. He tried on various T-shirts, declaring some of them too tight and

      13 min read

    • Article

      Sisters AT WAR

      Oct 14, 2020

      “A man came to the charity shop door the other day, peered in, noticed that the shop was pretty much empty, and announced, ‘I’m afraid I’ve forgotten to bring my mask. Would you mind if I came in anyway? I haven’t got a cough or anything, not even a

      3 min read

    • Article

      A friend IN NEED

      Oct 28, 2020

      “‘And then she said the final straw was when he decided to became a nudist.’ My charity shop colleague, Grace, and I are sitting in the window of The Nice Little Coffee Shop In The High Street, which has managed to survive lockdown by the skin of it

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Long-Ago Burglary

      Mar 14, 2022

      A Long-Ago Burglary
      4 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Dear, DETECTIVE

      Feb 26, 2020

      “Mr Dear, who had been repairing a leak in the roof of our chicken house, came into the kitchen with his hands covered in the black stuff that people use to repair leaks in chicken houses. ‘Not here! You’ll get it everywhere,’ I said. ‘Can’t you use

      3 min read

    • Article

      A summer TREAT

      Jun 24, 2021

      A summer TREAT
      10 min read

    • Article

      Caught between TWO WORLDS

      Nov 2, 2023

      Caught between TWO WORLDS
      2 min read

    • Article

      On The Case

      Mar 15, 2022

      On The Case
      2 min read

    • Article

      More Fool HER

      Feb 10, 2021

      More Fool HER
      8 min read

    • Article

      Life After Death

      May 27, 2022

      Life After Death
      14 min read

    • Article

      New DATING

      Mar 2, 2022

      New DATING
      3 min read

    • Article

      Chocs AWAY

      Mar 25, 2020

      “I suppose I will accept a grovelling apology,’ said Grace, who is the newest – and indeed the most glamorous – volunteer in our charity shop. ‘I’m kind like that.’ ‘That’s very big of you,’ I said, wobbly slightly on the stool behind the counter, a

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Convict

      Jul 10, 2020

      The Convict
      5 min read

    • Article

      You Rang?

      Jun 24, 2023

      You Rang?
      3 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Mar 1, 2019

      It’s 1 AM on the east coast and midnight in Iowawhen the Russian lawyer with a house in Newarkand an office in the city sends me an e-mail:“Your writing is so emotional yet so detached.It’s wonderful.” I respond without delay:“Dear Oleg, I don’t know

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Gus Mackie and the Hot Tamale

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Gus Mackie and the Hot Tamale - Bob Moats

      Gus Mackie and the Hot Tamale

      A Gus Mackie Novella #1

      Copyright © 2014 by Bob Moats.

      All rights reserved.

      Rev. 1114140800a

      ––––––––

      This book is licensed for your personal use only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      ––––––––

      No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

      ––––––––

      This is a work of pure fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

      ––––––––

      For information and address:

      Magic 1 Productions

      P.O. Box 524, Fraser MI 48026-0524

      Website: http://murdernovels.com

      Cover by Bob Moats

      Photo: Janine Predmore

      ––––––––

      Extra special thanks to:

      ––––––––

      Special thanks to Susan Haughton who edited this book and for her great suggestions.

      Thanks to the beta readers Cindy Gross Valstad, Al Norris, Val Brooks, Carolyn Linington, Sherry Tull and Amy Morningstar.

      Thank you to all the people who purchased this book. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it for my faithful readers.

      The Jim Richards Family of Readers is listed in the back of the book.

      Gus Mackie and the Hot Tamale

      Chapter 1

      ––––––––

      I just about fell back in my desk chair, falling asleep. It was a boring, dusky, rain-soaked Tuesday and I had no clients coming through my door.

      I'm Gus Mackie, private dick and super snooper for hire. Unfortunately, no one was hiring me right now, and my bank was going to foreclose on my wallet. Not that I cared. I lived in the back of my office that was a gift from a thankful client, one who I spared from an expensive divorce. I proved his wife was screwing his servants.

      His wife, Elsa, was hopping from bed to bed in his palatial mansion in the swanky neighborhood of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, just down the street from the Fords of auto fame. He was your basic slum lord and probably was dealing drugs on the side, but he was good to me, after I exposed his wife for the cheating slut she was. He probably also had mob ties, which I never asked about and never will. I liked living, if you could call this living.

      My office was located on the fourth floor of the building, in a crappy neighborhood located in the nicest slum of Detroit. It wasn't the best I could get, but it was rent free. As long as Kenny Grabowski was happy with me, this arrangement worked, so I tried not to piss him off. I couldn't afford to go anywhere else.

      I had a small amount of cash hidden in a fake can of beans that I bought at Bed, Bath and Beyond, for hiding your valuables. The top screwed off and you could put money or jewelry into it and put it on a shelf.

      Of course, it looked stupid. One can of beans alone on a shelf. If that didn't give it away, well, criminals had gotten stupider.

      I stared at the picture of the latest Playmate of the Month that I hastily taped up on my wall. She was the only decoration I had. She was enticing, but sex was something I hadn't indulged in for a long time. I wasn't the Tom Selleck, private investigator, type of detective. So women weren't beating down my door to pillage and rape me. I was more like Peter Falk in Columbo, without the fake right eye.

      I was the sole proprietor of my business, and I couldn't afford a secretary. Didn't need one, since I had very few people coming in to hire me. Maybe if I advertised, I could build up business. Unfortunately, advertising cost bucks, which I didn't have.

      I worked by word of mouth. Mostly divorce lawyers who would hire me occasionally to spy on unfaithful spouses. Just about every P.I. that I knew of chased after cheating spouses. It was a lucrative business, since all spouses cheat at one time or another. Unfortunately, it wasn't lucrative enough for me. I had three cases in the last month, enough to buy food and pay the utilities. Not enough to get drunk on, though.

      My door opened and in came a strangely well-groomed man in his fifties, wearing a hat that old men wore. I think they call it a pork pie. Why it was called that, I didn't know, or care. It didn't look like it went with his tailored suit, but I'm not a fashion maven myself.

      Morning. May I help you? I started the conversation.

      Are you Gus Markie? he asked.

      No, I'm Gus Mackie, P.I., but sometimes I'm confused with Gus Markie. What can I do for you? I asked, hoping he needed someone followed.

      I need someone followed.

      Bingo. I leaned forward and said, You came to the right place, please have a seat. I motioned to the chair in front of my desk, and he sat after dusting the chair with a handkerchief.

      I was slightly offended. I dusted my office every day, mostly out of boredom. But, hopefully, he was going to be a paying client, so I let him dust away. Maybe I would let him dust the rest of the office, but I didn't want to push my luck.

      Who do you want me to follow, Mr. – um?

      Glocksteiner, Hans Glocksteiner. I own Glocksteiner Antiques downtown. We sell antiques and auction off estates.

      Okay, Mr. Glocksteiner, who is it you want followed?

      My secretary. I think she's cheating on me.

      I see. What makes you think she's cheating on you?

      I just have the feeling. She's not meeting with me anymore when I arrange for a hotel room to have our trysts.

      Hotel room? You meet in hotels? Why? I asked, figuring I knew what he was going to say.

      So my wife doesn't find out, of course.

      Another bingo.

      Okay, so you are stepping out on your wife and you want me to find out if your mistress is stepping out on you, am I correct? I asked.

      I'm not fond of the term, 'mistress'. We are in love and I want to be sure she is totally faithful before I divorce my wife, he said with a haughty air.

      "Okay, I understand now. I'll need details on where

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1