The Casey Jones Series
Legwork
Casey's assignment as bodyguard to Senatorial candidate Mary Lee
Masters turns into a murder investigation when someone dumps a corpse
in the candidate's car, branding Masters as a killer with only weeks to
go before the election. Casey must unravel the tangled loyalties of
N.C. politics, puzzle out the contradictions of Southern feminism, confront the realities of her upbringing and
dodge everything from cross-bows to irate mothers in her search to find
the real killer -- all while contemplating new
objects of her fickle and frequently bestowed affections.
Out of Time
Out
of Time is heavy on suspense and action. When Casey Jones takes
the case of a woman on death row who has allegedly killed her cop
husband and is due to die for her crime in four weeks time, Casey sets
herself at odds with her hometown police force and some of her most
personal friends. When her investigation triggers a series of murders.
Casey races to uncover the truth before more people die and before an
innocent woman is put to death. Casey's main allies in this book
include a country mamma's boy and his pair of
lackadaisical bloodhounds.
Money to Burn
When one of Casey's clients is killed on her watch, she vows to track down
the murderer. Her search quickly takes her into the rarefied ranks
of North Carolina's social elite, where her own dirt-poor childhood
comes rushing back in a wave of self-doubt that adds fire to her
considerable fury. She must deal with her own insecurities and
ponder the worth she has placed on her personal integrity as she dodges
attempts on her life, spars with a formidable and heavily-jewelried
opponent and deals with complications caused by lust-at-first sight
with an unlikely candidate for love.
Bad to the Bone
Casey
is begged to intervene in a nasty interracial divorce
involving a child custody dispute and agrees against her better
judgment. When a murder soon follows, she realizes that she has been
set-up by a sociopathic client client who is underestimating both her
intelligence and her desire to see justice done. When the investigation
takes Casey to the Panhandle of Florida, she must confront some demons
of her past that she thought were long dead and buried. It's basically
a book long catfight between two bottled blondes: how can you go wrong?!
Better Off Dead
Casey must investigate a series of rapes on the Duke University
campus when she becomes embroiled in a nasty civil suit filed against a
female client who has been the victim of a horrible crime. Traumatized
by the experience, she can no longer set foot outside her home —
yet someone conintues to stalk and terrorize her. Casey agrees to help
find her tormentor and goes undercover as Duke’s sluttiest
student ever only to find herself distracted by younger men and a
boyfriend who is clearly heading in a different direction. Don’t
read this one late at night or before you cut through Duke
Gardens.
The Hubbert & Lil Series
You'll be able to order all of the Gallagher Gray books soon from Thalia Press -- please check back here for details after February 2008.
Hubbert & Lil: Partners In Crime
Auntie Lil and T.S. Hubbert investigate the death of a very proper
partner at a private Wall Street bank -- the very bank where T.S. used
to work. On his first day of early retirement, T.S. is ordered back to
work pronto to find out who would have the nerve to invade Sterling
& Sterling's hallowed halls with murder in mind. Auntie Lil smells
a mystery and promptly butts in, despite T.S.'s efforts to stop her.
Together, they investigate a trail that leads them back four decades,
to a time when the stuffy old men now in power at Sterling &
Sterling were not nearly so old and nowhere near as stuffy. It was a
time many of them would like to forget -- especially now that it
appears retribution may finally be near.
A Cast Of Killers
Auntie Lil and T.S. enter the world of Hell's Kitchen, a Times
Square neighborhood where Broadway's chorus girls of yesteryear now
stand in lines at local soup kitchens, make-up perfectly in place,
hoping to be fed. When one of these former beauties is poisoned while
eating Auntie Lil's famous chili, Auntie Lil becomes obsessed with
finding out the long-forgotten real name behind the victim's stage
identity so the poor woman can be given a proper burial. This search
leads Auntie Lil and T.S. into a murder investigation and the world of
NYC runaways, a world that neither of them would particularly like to
admit even exists.
Death Of A Dream Maker
Can a person love someone for fifty years, even when they never see
them? When the love of her life is
killed on his way to see her after twenty-five years of separation,
Auntie Lil vows that she will find the killer. Afraid for his
aunt's safety and frightened by her uncharacteristically frail reaction
to the death, T.S. agrees to help. Their search takes them back into
the rough-and-tumble garment industry where Auntie Lil once plied her
trade, and into a greedy family grown fat on their
founder's success. This book is an exploration of family,
both good and bad, as well as a tribute to the staying power
of true love.
Motive For Murder
A Motive for Murder takes place within the ranks of the fictional
Metropolitan Opera during its annual production of, you guessed it, The
Nutcracker. When an infamous stage father's dead body swings across the
stage and ruins a crucial scene on opening night, mayhem breaks out--
both within the Ballet's management ranks and in the city at large. Is
some maniac killing people at the opera house? Was there a racial
motivation behind the killing? Or is there a curse on the Metropolitan
Ballet? Auntie Lil is a member of the Ballet's Board and
is determined to find out who has spoiled her artistic vision.
Casey Jones:
North Carolina-based Casey Jones is a thirtyish bottle-blonde brickhouse whose brief prison record precludes a private investigator's license. Instead, she does all the dirty work for her boss Bobby D., a 360 pound ladies man who fancies himself to be a cross between Nero Wolfe and Barry White.
The series revolves around Casey and Bobby, as well as a cast of supporting players from all social strata.
There's lots of action, lots of humor, lots of local color. The books are all set in or near North Carolina's Research Triangle.
The series is best described as irreverant and frequently bawdy -- but not without its insights into human nature (at least, that's what I like to think!). What other people think:
"If you like Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton, or Sparkle Hayter, you'll love Katy Munger!"
-- Murder, Ink
"Casey Jones joins the ranks of smart and gutsy heroines. The South will never be the same. Don't miss her."
-- Janet Evanovich
"...Casey Jones is a tough, lusty, bad-ass woman from the wrong side of
the tracks. Casey could kick Stephanie Plum’s ass from here to hell and
back. Money to Burn throws Casey into a mystery that
pits her against Southern Old Money. The result is a well-plotted,
engrossing mystery with a ton of heart."
-- J.D. Rhoades
Hubbert & Lil:
Auntie Lil is an 84-year old New Yorker who has embarked on a new career as
an amateur sleuth after a lifetime of
duking it out in the garment industry.
Auntie Lil is not your typical little old lady. She is sturdily built with an appalling appetite, remains quite active, hates children and is very opinionated. Annoy- ingly, she is also often right. Her motivation for getting involved in all kinds of scrapes is a need to keep her life rich and interesting.
She is aided in her investigations by her buttoned-down 55-year old nephew, T.S. Hubbert, whose precise approach to life is diametrically opposed to that of his free-wheeling aunt.
This series is cozier than the Casey books and features a much dryer form of humor.
Hubbert & Lil reviews:
"Deftly plotted and well-paced... two wonderful sleuths make their debut."
-- The San Francisco Chronicle
"Weaves a wondrous web of work reltionships shrouded by ghosts of a
long ago scandal... In the classic British cozy tradition right down to
the body with the antique dagger in its chest."
-- The Drood Review of Mystery
"With a fond eye for the eccentric, Gray gives the streets of Hell's Kitchen the air of a gritty English village."
-- Publishers Weekly
"Gray has the rare talent of being able to combine humor with
sensitivity, and high comedy with realistic portrayals of genuine
people."
-- The Virginia-Pilot & The Ledger-Star