C. JAMES BROWN
“Classic American gumshoe fiction.”
“Earl Town is everything I could ever ask for in a detective - curious, daring, and has a sense of humor. ”
Neck & Neck
“The author not only delivers a marvelously complex and politically astute plot, but also manages to provide readers with a healthy countermeasure of humor”
PI Earl Town is back in Neck & Neck.
“A sharp, realistic look at the shadowy side of American elections.” - Kirkus Reviews
Two-term incumbent U.S. Senator Finn Harper envisioned a cakewalk election to a third term, followed by his ultimate goal — a successful run for the U.S. Presidency. That was before a young, and popular state senator named Maria Santos broke with the party and entered the race. Now Harper and his campaign staff of cast-offs and wannabes, headed by the ruthless Joan Wright, are fighting for their political lives.
Hired by a pain-in-the-neck client to follow an ex-con, PI Earl Town begins to suspect he has become part of a conspiracy by a powerful U.S. senator to paint his upstart challenger as soft on crime. When a campaign staffer is murdered, and the man Town was hired to follow is accused of the villainy, the PI goes rogue to stop the framing of an innocent man and catch the real killer.
“The reader is pulled into a world of conspiracy and blackmail.” — Reader’s Favorite
“A fine thriller that’s also a deliciously cynical sendup of the ghastliness of American politics.” — Kirkus Reviews
“The suspense is well-written, the prose is strong, and the plot loaded with surprises.” — Reader’s Favorite
“This really is a perfect murder mystery and, with its delving into influencer and social media marketing, has a very modern setting … Murder, danger, and hair-raising twists will keep a reader glued to the page.”
PI Earl Town returns in Killing Influence.
“A taut, timely thriller." - Kirkus Reviews
Two vivacious social media stars die just days apart. Both worked for Boom Productions, a self-described “arms dealer in the platform wars”—they create online content that generates billions of clicks. The timing of the seemingly unsuspicious deaths worries an aging mafia don whose granddaughter is a standout among Boom’s talent stable, so he hires PI Earl Town to investigate and Earl soon finds himself looking for clues among self-absorbed social media starlets, their fanatical parents, young social media entrepreneurs, rock stars, and gangsters.
The “wily sleuth” (Kirkus Reviews) finds a potential ally in a hard-nosed police detective assigned to the deaths. But it sure would help if Earl could remember just what he and she got up to on their first meeting at a boozy New Year’s Eve bash a few months prior. Then an old lawyer friend ropes Earl into looking for a dancer who disappeared while on the verge of a large payout. Working two cases is a problem when Earl’s clients are paying for his full attention, but issues magnify when the granddaughter is put in harm’s way and the don assigns his wet-behind-the-ears grandson to shadow Earl’s every move. The kid seems a simple-minded doofus at first, but Earl gradually comes to realize the heir didn’t fall far from the sociopathic family tree. Keeping his associate from killing witnesses, or being killed by them, adds to Earl’s burden as he uncovers a blackmail plot and races to keep a killer from escaping justice.
A gripping mystery, Killing Influence is also a story of power and persuasion, loyalty and betrayal, and, of course, la familia.
Indian Summer
“The prose is stylish, the pace is fast, the plot believable and nicely twisted.”
Earl Town’s got problems: a lump on the head, a missing body, two angry FBI agents, and a client he can’t take his eyes off. He’s also out of his element. He’s just an ex-cop from a small town turned private eye, who finds himself looking for a murderer among America’s modern-day aristocracy in Greenwich, Westchester, and the Upper East Side. Earl doesn’t much like these people, their lifestyles, or their attitudes. Along the way, they’ll underestimate him, mock him, seduce him, and even try to kill him. It’s up to the “wily sleuth protagonist” – Kirkus Reviews – to outsmart the smart set and bring a cold-blooded killer to justice.
Praise for Indian Summer
"Indian Summer is very well written, full of witty dialogue that kept me reading late into the night. Readers who like Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe will enjoy this series. It is a great first novel, and I highly recommend it." -- Readers' Favorite
"It is far more mature and carefully-crafted than one ever expects in a debut novel. The characters are engaging, and the protagonist is exceptional. Mr. Brown: we want more." -- Amazon Top 500 Reviewer & Vine Voice
The Storyteller
The son of a policeman, who has spent a quarter-century advising many of the world’s largest asset managers on strategy in the 401(k) and other retirement markets, C. James Brown has lived a fish out of water tale. Now, the kid from small-town New Hampshire hopes to crack the publishing world as well. His latest - Neck & Neck - is his third novel, and the third in the Earl Town series.