Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Smith Corona Blues: A Brefniverse Action Noir Mystery

Smith Corona Blues: A Brefniverse Action Noir Mystery

O'Rourke, Brefni

Paperback

Mystery & Thriller

ISBN13: 9798249905415
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Feb 26 2026
Pages: 222
Weight: 0.67
Height: 0.51 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
A terminally ill Seattle cop is teamed up with a brash young Scotland Yard inspector to probe the murder of an eccentric writer.

Writer's block can be deadly.

For troubled novelist RAY COBURN, it's about to set in permanently. As he goes from staring at a blank page in his typewriter to being stared down by shadowy assassins, his lurid past in Macau, China, flashes before his eyes with an exclamation point. An execution style murder follows, leaving him face down in his QWERTY keyboard.

Rain. Coffee. Heroin... Welcome to Seattle.

Detective LOU CARTER has seen better days. Facing retirement and battling lung cancer, he is suddenly face to face with the man who killed his son 12 years earlier, triad kingpin WONG KAR KOI. All the pieces are in place, a buy and bust sting operation set up by DEA task force seems set to finally nab the heroin smuggling killer for good.

But things take a sudden turn for the worse when Koi abruptly kidnaps an agent at gun point, thus beginning a wild shoot-out and spectacular chase along the crowded waterfront that concludes with Koi's fiery death.

In the aftermath of this high profile spectacle, Carter is transferred to Homicide and teamed with a new partner, out of the blue-- Meet RODDY McGILL. A flashy transplant from London, Scotland Yard's brightest superstar inspector, an adrenaline junkie with a rock n roll lifestyle.

Their first case: The murder of the mysterious Coburn; A man who had many 'identities', a heroin habit, and a penchant for 'researching' his novels so thoroughly that it may have finally gotten him in over his head.

As more bodies with the same MO turn up in the morgue, Carter and Roddy's case begins to overlap with several current DEA investigations, including a high stakes deal with a major triad player. All the cards are on the table. All signs point to Koi. But, ...he's dead.

Or is he?

In Macau they called him The Devil King, the joker in a deck of cards. Brutal. Flamboyant. Clever. And now, Carter's curiosity is piqued. With Roddy's devil may care urging, and a roll of the dice, they are off to Las Vegas with 400 kilos of heroin borrowed from DEA evidence to try and set up another sting and perhaps raise Koi's hungry ghost from hiding. The moment of truth is at hand and Roddy's meeting with a confidential informant is a go. But Carter's illness suddenly overcomes him and he collapses, blacking out. When he awakes in a hospital bed 3 days later...Roddy is gone. The heroin is gone.

But the con is very much on.

Forced off the police force in humiliation, Carter is facing his own mortality, his chance at nabbing Koi seeming all but lost. Alone with just Coburn's dog-eared manuscript, he begins to read, between the lines.

As the final chapter begins, Carter turns the page one more time and is off to Macau, China, on his own dime and playing by his own rules as he battles DEA deceptions and Triad assassins every step of the way. The stage is set for a showdown at a racetrack where Roddy's ultimate hidden agenda is exposed.

Truth may be stranger than the fiction. That is, if you can beat the blues.

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