Dead Cold Mystery Series by Blake Banner

Detective John Stone of the NYPD has the best arrest record in the 43rd precinct. But he’s a dinosaur who belongs to another age. Detective Carmen Dehan has such a bad attitude that nobody at the precinct can stomach her. Captain Jennifer Cuevas wants them both out of the way and thinks they make a perfect pair. So she gives them the Cold Cases file – the cases nobody gives a damn about.She has no idea just how hot a cold case can get... moreDetective John Stone of the NYPD has the best arrest record in the 43rd precinct. But he’s a dinosaur who belongs to another age. Detective Carmen Dehan has such a bad attitude that nobody at the precinct can stomach her. Captain Jennifer Cuevas wants them both out of the way and thinks they make a perfect pair. So she gives them the Cold Cases file – the cases nobody gives a damn about.She has no idea just how hot a cold case can get.Ten years back Nelson Hernandez and his four cousins were playing poker in a dive at Hunts Point. Somebody came in, blew them away and beheaded and castrated Nelson, leaving his head and his balls on the table. There was no shortage of suspects, the Jersey Mob, the Triads from Manhattan, or the 43rds own bent cop, Mick Harragan. But nobody was ever charged, and the night of the murder Mick Harragan went missing with Nelson’s wife, Maria.Now Stone and Dehan plan to find him – whatever the consequences… less

It was November in New York. It was raining, it was cold and the trees all looked like skeleton’s hands. And Detective John Stone was having a problem with habeas corpus, because all there was of the body, was two bare arms. Two bare arms that somebody, twelve years ago, had put in a lock up in the East Bronx. What they had done with the rest of the woman, nobody knew... moreIt was November in New York. It was raining, it was cold and the trees all looked like skeleton’s hands. And Detective John Stone was having a problem with habeas corpus, because all there was of the body, was two bare arms. Two bare arms that somebody, twelve years ago, had put in a lock up in the East Bronx. What they had done with the rest of the woman, nobody knew. But as Stone and Dehan start to investigate, two things become clear: whoever killed the woman, wanted her arms to be found, as a boast, as a challenge. And that meant they were dealing with a psychopath – a serial killer.But who –the biker with a taste for beating up women? Or his best pal the Satanist and devotee of Crowley? Or perhaps the neurotic IT freak who spent his leisure hours surfing the net for porn? Or maybe somebody else…?One thing Stone understands clearly, whoever it is, is a master of misdirection… less

THE DEAD COLD MYSTERY SERIES: BOOKS 1-4Book 1: An Ace And A PairDetective John Stone of the NYPD has the best arrest record in the 43rd precinct. But he’s a dinosaur who belongs to another age. Detective Carmen Dehan has such a bad attitude that nobody at the precinct can stomach her. Captain Jennifer Cuevas wants them both out of the way and thinks they make a perfect pair. So she gives them the Cold Cases file – the cases nobody gives a damn about... moreTHE DEAD COLD MYSTERY SERIES: BOOKS 1-4Book 1: An Ace And A PairDetective John Stone of the NYPD has the best arrest record in the 43rd precinct. But he’s a dinosaur who belongs to another age. Detective Carmen Dehan has such a bad attitude that nobody at the precinct can stomach her. Captain Jennifer Cuevas wants them both out of the way and thinks they make a perfect pair. So she gives them the Cold Cases file – the cases nobody gives a damn about.She has no idea just how hot a cold case can get.Ten years back Nelson Hernandez and his four cousins were playing poker in a dive at Hunts Point. Somebody came in, blew them away and beheaded and castrated Nelson, leaving his head and his balls on the table. There was no shortage of suspects, the Jersey Mob, the Triads from Manhattan, or the 43rds own bent cop, Mick Harragan. But nobody was ever charged, and the night of the murder Mick Harragan went missing with Nelson’s wife, Maria.Now Stone and Dehan plan to find him – whatever the consequences…Book 2: Two Bare ArmsIt was November in New York. It was raining, it was cold and the trees all looked like skeleton’s hands. And Detective John Stone was having a problem with habeas corpus, because all there was of the body, was two bare arms. Two bare arms that somebody, twelve years ago, had put in a lock up in the East Bronx. What they had done with the rest of the woman, nobody knew. But as Stone and Dehan start to investigate, two things become clear: whoever killed the woman, wanted her arms to be found, as a boast, as a challenge. And that meant they were dealing with a psychopath – a serial killer.But who –the biker with a taste for beating up women? Or his best pal the Satanist and devotee of Crowley? Or perhaps the neurotic IT freak who spent his leisure hours surfing the net for porn? Or maybe somebody else…?One thing Stone understands clearly, whoever it is, is a master of misdirection…Book 3: Garden of The DamnedWhen the body of a tramp was found in a dumpster on Lafayette and Bryant in the Bronx, with no papers and no ID, the case was filed as unsolved – another victim nobody cared about, shot by some punk nobody cared about.That was twelve years ago.Then Detective Stone notices that the ‘tramp’ had a hundred dollar haircut and manicured nails. That makes him curious. He wants to know, who dresses a murder victim up as a tramp, then leaves them in full view in a dumpster? But the answers he gets are not the ones he expects, and before long their investigation leads Stone and Dehan to St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, and the darkest recesses of the human soul. It also leads them to some of the most powerful men in New York. Some, like Conor Hagan, head of the Irish Mob, are known criminals. But others are not… Stone’s problem is deciding which of them are just criminals, and which are truly evil. That is, until ghosts start appearing from Dehan’s past. Then things get complicated…Book 4: Let Us PreyIt seemed to be a cold case like any other. So much so that Stone and Dehan hadn’t even considered reviewing it – until private investigator Karl Baxter requested a copy of the police file. Then Stone got curious. Why did a second rate PI in the Bronx want to look into the case of a low life petty criminal found tied to a chair in his apartment, beaten and shot through the heart? And that question led to other questions, like, whose was second pool of blood on the floor? If there was a second victim, where was the body? Unfortunately, a chat with Baxter only raises more questions that threaten to drive Stone crazy: who is the mysterious Tamara Gunthersen? And what was the gig she did for the even more mysterious Geronimo dos Santos, back in 2015? At every turn the questions get deeper, and the women more tempting - and more dangerous. Until the strain on Stone and Dehan’s partnership threatens to make it snap. less

There hadn’t been a crime in Dexter, upstate New York, since 1865. It was a long time coming, but when it came, on the 21st September, 2012, it was ugly. It was murder.It was the murder of a seventeen year-old girl, beaten, raped and strangled, then stabbed in the heart with a hunting knife. The DNA recovered from the corpse was contaminated and corrupted, but the DNA recovered from her clothes at home was clear... moreThere hadn’t been a crime in Dexter, upstate New York, since 1865. It was a long time coming, but when it came, on the 21st September, 2012, it was ugly. It was murder.It was the murder of a seventeen year-old girl, beaten, raped and strangled, then stabbed in the heart with a hunting knife. The DNA recovered from the corpse was contaminated and corrupted, but the DNA recovered from her clothes at home was clear. It was her stepfather’s, just like the fingerprints on her arms and her face where she had been beaten. It should heave been an open and shut case, but there was a problem. When seventeen year-old Debbie was being murdered, her step father was drinking beer with the deputy.So who killed Debbie Smith?Seven years after the murder, the sheriff of Franklin County wants an answer. And he’s heard that the 43rd in the Bronx has a team who specialize in cracking cold cases. But as the fall sets in in upstate new York, this case may be just too cold to crack.Or too hot… less