Blake Brier brings operational experience and technical expertise to the same problem. Unmasked draws the former CIA operative into a case involving hackers and a terrorist threat, giving his series more than one way to approach an investigation.

If you are ready for another lead, decide which part you want to carry forward. Is it the former government operative, the conspiracy, the need to test unreliable evidence, or the disruption of a quiet life?

These four choices follow those threads in different directions. Their opening premises emphasize cartel pursuit, federal investigation, covert assignments, or personal danger. The comparison is about those interests, rather than a promise that each will reproduce Blake’s technical focus.

Danny Cortez: when hiding stops working

Dead Man’s List introduces Danny Cortez, a former DEA intelligence agent who has been hiding from the cartel he helped bring down. When its leader escapes prison, the danger returns. A message bearing his dead partner’s name adds a mystery he cannot ignore.

Danny has to protect his mother while trying to understand what happened to his partner. The opening moves through Colorado and New Mexico, keeping the consequences of his old work close to the people he cares about.

Choose Danny for an intelligence background, a pursuit tied to unfinished business, and a question about loyalty that makes retreat difficult. Start with Dead Man’s List and continue to Shadow Directive.

Begin with Dead Man’s List by L.T. Ryan and Andre Gonzalez.

Use the Danny Cortez reading guide.

Jane Cannon: when the evidence points at the investigator

For the investigative side of Blake’s appeal, try Blind Trust.

FBI agent Jane Cannon is suspended after DEA colleague Dan Simmons dies. Messages attributed to her place her conduct under suspicion, forcing her to examine the Seattle case while her own professional position is at risk.

Jane’s series offers procedural suspense centered on evidence, corruption, and institutional pressure. The opening question is especially direct: how can she establish what happened when the account taking shape also threatens her?

Choose this route when you want an investigation in which trust in the institution is part of the problem. Blind Trust comes first, followed by Collateral.

Begin with Blind Trust by L.T. Ryan and K.T. Crowe.

Use the Jane Cannon reading guide.

Bear Logan: a mission with dangerous questions behind it

Ripple Effect begins with Bear Logan and Jack Noble assigned to kill a corrupt U.S. senator overseas. Cartel involvement complicates the job, and the possibility that they are being used changes what they need to uncover.

For readers drawn to operational choices and compromised loyalties, Bear offers a concentrated covert-action reading path. The partnership with Jack is part of the premise, while Bear takes the lead in this branch of the Noble books.

Follow Ripple Effect with Blowback, Takedown, and Deep State. Those four novels form the sequence listed in Bear’s own guide.

Begin with Ripple Effect by L.T. Ryan.

Use the Bear Logan reading guide.

Justin Haig: a quiet life put at risk

Failure Drill starts in a Texas border town, where Justin Haig and the woman he loves have built a life away from his violent past. An act of cruelty puts that future in jeopardy and forces him to confront the skills and history he hoped to leave behind.

Choose Justin if Blake’s return from seclusion is an important part of the appeal. This opening keeps the reasons for returning to danger close and personal, with a former operative deciding how far he will go in response.

Failure Drill introduces that situation. Cold Bore follows as Book 2.

Begin with Failure Drill by L.T. Ryan and Brian Shea.

Use the Justin Haig reading guide.

For help checking your place in Blake’s own novels and collections, visit the Blake Brier reading guide.

Dalton offers a familiar character and a sheriff’s perspective. Maddie Castle brings the work into private investigation and a developing K-9 partnership. Jane Cannon moves the pressure inside federal law enforcement, where the investigator’s own credibility is in question.

Follow a familiar sheriff: Dalton Savage

If you met Dalton through Hatch and wanted more of him, Savage Grounds is the direct next step. He leads his own series, beginning with the disappearance of a young woman from a Colorado hiking trail.

Suspicion falls on her recently paroled ex-boyfriend. As Savage and his team search the mountains, they have to keep testing that first explanation. The landscape is part of the difficulty: this is an investigation where finding someone also means reaching them through dangerous terrain.

Choose Dalton when you want to stay with a character you know and spend more time with a sheriff and his team. His books have their own numbering, starting with Savage Grounds and continuing with Scorched Earth. They do not extend the numbered Hatch list.

Begin with Savage Grounds by L.T. Ryan and Biba Pearce.

See the Dalton Savage reading guide.

Change the working partnership: Maddie Castle

The Handler introduces Maddie after a shooting has ended her police career and killed her K-9 partner. When another handler is murdered, his injured dog draws her back toward the work she knows.

That opening makes professional skill and personal recovery inseparable. Maddie’s investigations take her into Pittsburgh, while working with a dog becomes part of rebuilding a life that has been abruptly changed.

This is a useful choice if Hatch’s competence and personal stakes matter as much to you as the case. The change is in the central partnership and the city-based private-investigation setting. Expect the work of restoring trust to matter alongside the questions surrounding the crime.

Start with The Handler, then continue to Tracking Justice. The separate novella titled Maddie Castle is a prequel.

Begin with The Handler by L.T. Ryan and C.R. Gray.

See the Maddie Castle reading guide.

Put the investigator under suspicion: Jane Cannon

Blind Trust begins with FBI agent Jane Cannon suspended after the death of DEA colleague Dan Simmons. Messages attributed to her have raised questions about her conduct, and she has to revisit the Seattle case behind his death.

For readers who like watching an investigator challenge an accepted explanation, Jane offers another strong route. Here, the evidence threatens the person trying to assess it. Her professional standing and the institution she works for become part of the pressure.

Choose Jane for FBI procedural suspense, corruption, and difficult questions about whom and what to trust. Start with Blind Trust and follow it with Collateral.

Begin with Blind Trust by L.T. Ryan and K.T. Crowe.

See the Jane Cannon reading guide.

Choosing your next case

Dalton is the clearest continuation when a familiar Hatch character is the draw. Maddie is the choice for a different investigative partnership with recovery at its center. Jane makes the investigator’s relationship with her own institution a central problem.

If you’re still finding your place in Hatch’s novels and shorter stories, the Rachel Hatch reading guide keeps those routes together.

Header art: AI-generated editorial illustration of a fictional mountain setting.

A next read can preserve the investigation while changing who has to do the work. The four choices below follow an FBI agent, a sheriff, a former K-9 handler, and a journalist. Each brings a different relationship to the case, the people involved, and the institutions around it.

Jane Cannon: an investigator defending her own credibility

In Blind Trust, FBI agent Jane Cannon has been suspended following the death of DEA colleague Dan Simmons. Messages attributed to her have placed her conduct under suspicion. To clear her name, she has to look again at the Seattle case behind his death.

Jane is a strong choice if Tanner’s pressure from inside the system interests you. Here, professional security has already been taken away at the opening, and the investigation must address evidence that threatens the investigator herself.

This route moves from homicide work into FBI procedural suspense. Choose it for corruption, institutional pressure, and the effort to establish a reliable account of events.

Start with Blind Trust, then continue with Collateral.

First book: Blind Trust by L.T. Ryan and K.T. Crowe.

Series route: Jane Cannon.

Dalton Savage: a sheriff’s team and a mountain search

Savage Grounds takes you from Philadelphia to Colorado, where a young woman has disappeared from a hiking trail. Her recently paroled ex-boyfriend attracts suspicion, and Sheriff Dalton Savage’s team heads into the mountains.

Choose Dalton when you want to keep the law-enforcement team at the center of the story but change the setting and the demands of the case. The search requires working through dangerous terrain as well as questioning the first explanation.

That combination makes place especially important to this opening. Finding the missing woman is also a practical problem of where and how to search. Begin with Savage Grounds before moving to Scorched Earth.

First book: Savage Grounds by L.T. Ryan and Biba Pearce.

Series route: Dalton Savage.

Maddie Castle: investigative work after a career-ending loss

The Handler begins after a shooting has ended Maddie Castle’s police career and killed her K-9 partner. Another handler’s murder brings an injured dog into her life and draws her toward an investigation.

For Tanner readers, the connection is the difficulty of separating the case from what the lead character is carrying personally. Maddie’s work takes her into private investigation in Pittsburgh, with a developing canine partnership changing how she begins again.

Choose this route for crime-solving alongside recovery and the rebuilding of trust. The working partnership is different from Tanner and Foster’s, and it is central to Maddie’s opening story.

The Handler is the first numbered novel, followed by Tracking Justice.

First book: The Handler by L.T. Ryan and C.R. Gray.

Series route: Maddie Castle.

Stella LaRosa: follow the case from a reporter’s position

Black Rose begins with a murder in a San Francisco alley. Investigative journalist Stella LaRosa follows its connections toward a secret government program, drawing on experience gained in dangerous places.

Detective Rob Griffin, someone from her past, becomes involved in the search. The case expands beyond the local crime that first brings it into view.

Choose Stella if you want to keep asking who benefits from an accepted explanation while changing the investigator’s professional role. She approaches the story as a reporter, with the pursuit and exposure of information placing her in conflict with powerful interests.

Begin with Black Rose, then read Red Ink.

First book: Black Rose by L.T. Ryan and Kristi Belcamino.

Series route: Stella LaRosa.

The Mitch Tanner reading guide lists The Depth of Darkness, Into the Darkness, and Deliver Us from Darkness in sequence if you want to check your shelf before starting another investigator’s story.

Header art: AI-generated editorial illustration of a fictional urban setting.

Readers can come away wanting different things from that combination. For some, it is the partnership at the heart of the case. For others, it is an investigator carrying personal loss, or a character trying to make a life after violence.

These three choices follow those interests in different directions. None is offered as another K-9 series; each gives you a specific reason to turn the first page.

Mitch Tanner: a police partnership and a missing family

The Depth of Darkness introduces Philadelphia homicide detective Mitch Tanner and his partner, Sam Foster. What initially appears to be an accidental death leads them toward a more disturbing crime involving missing children.

Tanner is already searching for answers at home. His wife and son have disappeared, and he is caring for the daughter who remains with him. The case and his private circumstances make it difficult to keep other families’ fears separate from his own.

Choose Tanner if you want to stay with city-based crime and an established working partnership. The shift from Maddie is toward a homicide detective inside police work, with an unresolved family disappearance running alongside the investigation.

The opening reading route is straightforward: The Depth of Darkness, Into the Darkness, then Deliver Us from Darkness.

Start with The Depth of Darkness by L.T. Ryan.

Follow the Mitch Tanner reading guide.

Rachel Hatch: trained instincts applied to a personal case

In Drift, Rachel Hatch returns to her hometown after her sister’s death. The former Army criminal investigator questions the explanation she has been given and works with Sheriff Dalton Savage to find out what happened.

Hatch is a useful next choice if you respond to Maddie’s combination of professional experience and personal stakes. Both opening novels give their investigators reasons to care that extend beyond the job.

The change is in the kind of story you are entering. Hatch’s series combines investigative work with her military background, combat skills, and a life spent moving on. Drift begins with a return to a place she left, rather than the Pittsburgh private-investigation path Maddie takes.

Begin with Drift and continue to Downburst. The main novels and supplemental stories have separate sections in the series guide.

Start with Drift by L.T. Ryan and Brian Shea.

Follow the Rachel Hatch reading guide.

Gwen Kane: when protecting a new life becomes the story

Gwen Kane offers another collaboration between L.T. Ryan and C.R. Gray, with a move into psychological suspense.

In Victim or Villain, Gwen has escaped an abusive marriage and found refuge at Rhiannon’s Ranch. She works at a nearby bakery and is beginning to trust the safety she has found. Violence reaching that community forces difficult choices about protecting it.

Choose Gwen if Maddie’s effort to rebuild is the part you most want to explore from another perspective. The focus moves from a professional investigator and canine partnership to a survivor whose private sanctuary is threatened.

The premise includes domestic abuse and violence. Victim or Villain is the first main novel; Breaking Point is a separate prequel novella.

Start with Victim or Villain by L.T. Ryan and C.R. Gray.

Follow the Gwen Kane reading guide.

For another case-driven working partnership, begin with Tanner. For a trained investigator drawn into a deeply personal search, try Hatch. For the psychological stakes of protecting a hard-won new life, choose Gwen.

The Maddie Castle reading guide is the place to check your current book, the prequel, and the collections.

Header art: AI-generated interpretation of Tempest, inspired by the opening chapters of The Handler.

Dalton Savage’s cases bring people and landscape into the same investigation. Savage Grounds begins with a missing hiker in Colorado, a suspect whose history draws attention, and a search that takes the sheriff’s team into dangerous mountain terrain.

For a next read, you can follow the character connection, the local mystery, or the atmosphere of an investigation shaped by place. Rachel Hatch, Bear & Mandy Logan, and Avril Dahl each offer one of those routes, with different leads and different reasons for becoming involved.

Rachel Hatch: meet Savage through Hatch’s investigation

If you began with Dalton’s own series, Drift offers another way to meet him.

Rachel Hatch returns to her hometown after her sister’s death and questions the explanation she has been given. A former Army criminal investigator, she works with Sheriff Dalton Savage to uncover what happened.

This is a genuine character connection. It also changes the center of the story: Hatch’s family loss and investigative training drive the opening, while Dalton works with her on the case. Choose it when you want a familiar sheriff within a different lead character’s story.

Drift is the first numbered Rachel Hatch novel. Continue with Downburst, then follow Hatch’s main sequence. Her shorter stories are listed separately in the guide, so they do not shift the novel numbering.

Start with Drift by L.T. Ryan and Brian Shea.

Explore the Rachel Hatch reading guide.

Bear & Mandy Logan: a mystery on the doorstep

Close to Home begins in upstate New York, where Bear Logan and his adopted daughter, Mandy, are trying to settle down. Human remains discovered on their property make that fresh start more complicated.

Bear works with local sheriff Josephine McKinnon as the investigation reaches into a history the town has not put behind it. His experience and Mandy’s resourcefulness are part of a story built around their father-and-daughter relationship.

For Savage readers, the appeal is another mystery rooted in a community, where a discovery changes how people have to look at the place around them. The perspective moves outside the sheriff’s team and into the lives of the pair whose new home has become part of the case.

Choose this route for local secrets with family relationships sharing the focus. Close to Home is Book 1, followed by Under the Surface.

Start with Close to Home by L.T. Ryan and K.M. Rought.

Explore the Bear & Mandy Logan reading guide.

Avril Dahl: take the investigation into a Swedish winter

Cold Reckoning offers another crime series written by L.T. Ryan and Biba Pearce, this time centered on FBI agent Avril Dahl.

Avril returns to Sweden after years spent pursuing the serial killer responsible for her mother’s death. Instead of getting distance from that pursuit, she encounters signs that the killer is watching her. Her childhood home and the winter landscape become part of a deeply personal investigation.

Choose Avril if the setting is an important part of your enjoyment of Savage’s books. The change brings Scandinavian crime atmosphere and the psychological pressure of a case that has shaped the investigator’s own life.

Begin with Cold Reckoning and continue to Cold Legacy. Follow Avril’s own numbered route through the series guide.

Start with Cold Reckoning by L.T. Ryan and Biba Pearce.

Explore the Avril Dahl reading guide.

Three different reasons to begin

Read Drift for Savage’s established connection to Hatch. Choose Close to Home for a family-centered view of dangerous local secrets. Pick Cold Reckoning for another Ryan and Pearce collaboration with a strong sense of place and a personal serial-killer investigation.

To check your current place in Savage’s novels or the opening collection, visit the Dalton Savage reading guide.

The recommendations here follow those interests into psychological suspense and investigator-led crime. They change the emphasis from Cassie’s medium-assisted cases. Choose by the part of her story you want more of, whether that is Savannah’s secrets, a survivor’s uncertain safety, or a crime that reaches into an investigator’s own history.

Savannah Shadows: another view of the city’s secrets

Echoes of Guilt begins with Savannah attorney Claire Stevens taking on the appeal of Anthony Bates, a convicted serial killer. His confession appeared to settle the case. Looking again reveals questions about evidence and assessments that went unchallenged at trial.

Claire’s work also becomes personal. Disturbing messages connect the investigation to a tragedy in her own past, making it harder to keep professional duty separate from private fear.

Choose Savannah Shadows when you want to stay with Savannah and explore how an accepted account of a crime can come apart. Its route into the mystery is legal and psychological: an attorney examines a conviction and discovers reasons to question it.

There is another structural change to know before starting. Savannah Shadows shifts its investigative focus among connected characters. After Claire’s opening book, The Silence Before follows journalist Fiona Stevens. You are entering an expanding circle of perspectives rather than following only one recurring lead.

Start with Echoes of Guilt by L.T. Ryan and Laura Chase.

See the Savannah Shadows reading guide.

Gwen Kane: suspense built around a fragile refuge

If Cassie’s efforts to rebuild draw you in, Gwen Kane offers another character trying to hold on to a life after violence.

In Victim or Villain, Gwen has left an abusive husband and found shelter at Rhiannon’s Ranch. A job at a nearby bakery and a community of people who understand her past have given her a foothold. When violence reaches the refuge, protecting that community becomes an urgent problem.

This is the most direct move toward survivor-centered psychological suspense among these choices. The questions concern safety, trust, and the decisions a person will make to protect a place that has allowed her to begin again.

The premise includes domestic abuse and violence. Begin with the first main novel, Victim or Villain; the separate novella Breaking Point is a prequel.

Start with Victim or Villain by L.T. Ryan and C.R. Gray.

See the Gwen Kane reading guide.

Avril Dahl: a personal investigation in a different landscape

Cold Reckoning takes FBI agent Avril Dahl back to Sweden, where the serial killer connected to her mother’s death turns her return into another stage of a long pursuit.

The setting changes sharply from Savannah. Winter streets and woods surround an investigation that cuts through Avril’s own history. Her professional experience matters, but so does the fact that this particular killer has already shaped her life.

Choose Avril if the connection between a character’s past and the case is what keeps you reading. This recommendation follows the investigative and psychological side of Cassie’s appeal into Scandinavian crime fiction, with a federal agent at the center of the search.

Cold Reckoning is Book 1. Continue with Cold Legacy.

Start with Cold Reckoning by L.T. Ryan and Biba Pearce.

See the Avril Dahl reading guide.

Before leaving Cassie’s shelf

The Bones, Shadow, and Ashes titles continue the same Cassie Quinn sequence. If a change in title pattern has made you wonder where to go next, check the Cassie Quinn reading guide before switching series. It separates the numbered novels from collections so you can find the next story you have not read.

Header art: AI-generated interpretation inspired by Cassie Quinn’s bungalow; composition and decorative details are illustrative.

Close to Home begins with an attempt at a fresh start. Bear and his adopted daughter, Mandy, are settling in upstate New York when human remains on their property bring the town’s past into their new life.

That combination gives readers several reasons to stay with the series: Bear and Mandy’s relationship, the mysteries inside small communities, and the experience Bear carries with him. Your next series can follow any of those interests.

The choices below are deliberately different. One follows Bear into his covert work. Another stays with local investigations and a sheriff’s team. The third puts an unresolved family disappearance beside the demands of homicide work.

Bear Logan: return to the operative

If Bear’s background has made you curious about his earlier lead adventures, begin with Ripple Effect.

Bear and Jack Noble are carrying out an assignment to kill a corrupt U.S. senator abroad. Cartel involvement changes the operation, and questions about who is directing the job become part of the danger.

This is the route for spending more time with Bear in the work he and Jack shared. It shifts the emphasis from a father-and-daughter mystery to covert operations, a compromised mission, and loyalties under pressure. The familiar character is the connection; the kind of assignment is different.

Bear’s own sequence runs through Ripple Effect, Blowback, Takedown, and Deep State. Keep its numbering separate from Bear & Mandy Logan. Close to Home starts the latter series as Book 1.

Begin with Ripple Effect by L.T. Ryan.

Follow the Bear Logan reading guide.

Dalton Savage: another community with questions to answer

Savage Grounds opens with a missing hiker in Colorado. Her recently paroled ex-boyfriend becomes a suspect, but Dalton Savage and his team have to investigate beyond that initial explanation as the search takes them into the mountains.

Choose Dalton if the local mystery in Bear and Mandy’s books is what most interests you. A disappearance changes the way familiar people and places have to be examined. The investigation is rooted in the community, with difficult terrain adding practical danger to the search.

The lead partnership changes, too. Dalton is a sheriff working with his team, so this route gives you a law-enforcement perspective on the case. It is a thematic recommendation for Bear and Mandy readers, centered on local secrets and investigative work.

Savage Grounds is the starting point, followed by Scorched Earth.

Begin with Savage Grounds by L.T. Ryan and Biba Pearce.

Follow the Dalton Savage reading guide.

Mitch Tanner: family concerns that cannot stay at home

Mitch Tanner offers a more troubled family situation. At the opening of The Depth of Darkness, the Philadelphia homicide detective is searching for his missing wife and son while raising his daughter.

A case with partner Sam Foster begins as an apparent accidental death and grows into something more disturbing. Missing children make the work especially difficult for a man already living with unanswered questions about his own family.

Choose Tanner for the way family responsibilities and an investigation press against each other. His daughter is part of the life he is trying to hold together; the central investigative partnership is with Foster. That makes this a different dynamic from Bear and Mandy sharing the focus of their mysteries.

Start with The Depth of Darkness, then read Into the Darkness and Deliver Us from Darkness.

Begin with The Depth of Darkness by L.T. Ryan.

Follow the Mitch Tanner reading guide.

Which part do you want to follow?

For more of Bear himself, go to Ripple Effect. For a community-centered search, choose Savage Grounds. For a detective carrying a family crisis into his cases, begin The Depth of Darkness.

If you have been reading collections, the Bear & Mandy Logan guide will help you identify the next unread novel before making the switch.

Read the complete first chapter of The Handler, Maddie Castle Book One, by L.T. Ryan with C.R. Gray.

Find The Handler and the Maddie Castle reading guide when you are ready to continue.

Copyright © 2023 by LT Ryan and Liquid Mind Media, LLC, C.R. Gray, Brian Shea. All rights reserved.

Sample: Chapter One

The tires spun out as they cut the corner.

That bend had Callahan’s life flashing before his eyes, envisioning the cruiser flipping off the bridge into the Monongahela River below.

Callahan glanced in his rearview. “You alright, Tempy?”

She was up on all fours. Her ears were high atop her head, listening closely for a command. Poking her nose between the bars that separated the cabin, she chuffed in answer, as if to say, “Watch the road, not me.”

Callahan focused on the beat-up Grand Am before him. The red and blue lights flashing overhead reflected on the snowflakes before they melted on the windshield. He glanced at his speedometer, topping seventy in a fifty-five. Even with his studded tires, he’d temporarily lost control.

The car he was chasing had a donut on the rear.

They were looking at three options. Right to the strip district. Left to Mount Washington. Straight through the tunnels.

Tunnels were the safest bet. No snow through there.

But would this guy be smart enough for that? Or did he think he’d make the bend?

Only a few hundred yards from the intersection, Callahan braced for impact.

Stop at the red light or charge through it after him.

Tempy’s in the back.

Callahan eased a foot on the brake. He kept his eyes on the silver Grand Am as it spun to the right, heading into Station Square.

Only to spiral.

He crashed into the building at the corner.

Glass sprayed like rain from a cloud.

A chunk of metal crashed into Callahan’s windshield.

The glass shattered.

His eyes sealed shut as he slammed to a full stop. The winter wind rushed through the opening. Unable to tell whether the glass or snow burned his cheeks and bare arms, he blinked his eyes back open, slowly.

Just in time to watch the suspect run from the car and take off on foot.

Callahan jammed the SUV into park and hopped out. The sirens blared down the bridge, lights flickering behind the traffic.

He rushed to the back seat, grabbed Tempest’s leash, and hauled her to the ground. They jogged to the scene of the accident. A few drops of crimson speckled the snow dusted sidewalk.

Tempy got a whiff, and she yanked the lead.

“Atta girl,” he said beneath his breath. He looked over his shoulder at his backup, Bill Jackson, slowing to a halt behind Callahan’s cruiser.

Callahan raised a hand, signaling his presence. Jackson gave a quick nod in response, speaking into his walkie talkie.

Jackson wasn’t far behind.

Tempy whined at the edge of the leash and looked up at Callahan as if saying, “He’s getting away. We have to move.”

She wouldn’t, though. Not until she got the command. Callahan trusted Tempest like he trusted his buddies from the army. She was damn good at her job.

Jackson was getting out of his cruiser now anyway.

Callahan gave the word.

Tempest’s pace quickened.

The late February wind was like ice in Callahan’s lungs as he jogged with his K-9 partner through the maze of vehicles. It was after midnight on a Tuesday. Even though this was one of the busiest places in the city, it was deserted at this hour.

Utter silence.

Aside from his heart in his ears, there was no one in sight.

If not for Tempest’s intense pursuit, Callahan would’ve thought the suspect had vanished with the wind.

The rattle of the metal sounded.

Tempy cut to the right and picked up speed.

The suspect curled his fingers around the chain-link fence at the edge of the parking lot, fighting with all his might to struggle over its barbed wire top.

Tempest wagged her tail, whining, and yanked on the lead.

Callahan released the leash, but Tempy stayed in place until he said, “Go ahead.”

She bolted along the fence line to the suspect. He glanced over his shoulder at the German Shepherd barreling toward him. Struggling harder, working faster, almost at the top of the fence, he reached into his pocket. Just as he wrenched his arm over his shoulder, tossing the plastic bag he’d retrieved into the distance, he lost his footing.

He dropped to the pavement.

The bag of drugs landed somewhere on the other side of the fence.

Tempy gained on the suspect.

He was almost on his knees when Tempest skidded to a stop before him.

Facing the snapping and snarling K-9, the suspect stayed still, accepting his defeat.

“Stay,” Callahan commanded.

Tempest remained exactly where she was, still baring her teeth, but awaiting her next command.

Slowing his pace, finally able to catch his breath, Callahan held his gun before him as he approached. “Lie flat on the ground and put your hands behind your head.”

The suspect did as he was told.

Only a few feet away, Callahan reached for the cuffs on his belt, keeping the gun on the man. Tempest stood strong, hair on her back at its ends, awaiting her next command or a pat on the head.

Just as Callahan leaned down to cuff the suspect, the rustle of leaves sounded.

He kept his gun on the suspect but peered over his shoulder. He expected it to be Jackson, but no one was there.

Boom!

A punch knocked Callahan in the chest.

Boom!

Another in the back of his bulletproof vest.

Boom!

A third that ended in a yelp from Tempest.

Boom!

One more.

Through the side of Callahan’s head.

Callahan dropped to the concrete.

Tempy yelped and fell to her side.

The suspect hurried to his feet and took off.

Tempy looked at Callahan for her next command.

Silence.

She struggled onto all fours and limped to his face. She lapped the blood pooling through his hair. When Callahan didn’t respond, she lowered her head to his hand, peered up at him, and whined one more time.

Continue reading

Continue with The Handler, or explore the Maddie Castle reading guide.

Begin Jack Noble’s story with the complete first chapter of Noble Beginnings, by L.T. Ryan. This is Book One of the Jack Noble Series.

Find Noble Beginnings and the Jack Noble reading guide when you are ready to continue.

Copyright © 2012 by L.T. Ryan, Liquid Mind Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

Sample: Chapter One

BAGHDAD, IRAQ. MARCH, 2002

I leaned back against a weathered stone wall. Muffled voices slipped through the cracked door. The night air felt cool against my sweat-covered forehead. A light breeze carried with it the smell of raw sewage. Orange-tinted smoke from a distant fire rose high into the sky. Wisps of smoke streaked across the full moon ahead of the mass of artificial cloud cover, threatening to block the moonlight I used to keep watch over the sleepy street while the CIA special operations team did their job inside the house. The smart team leaders kept me involved. The dumb ones left me outside to guard the entrance.

Eight years on the job. Best gig I ever had. Then Bin Laden attacked the U.S. Forty-eight hours later everything had changed. Most teams were deployed to Afghanistan. Bear and I were sent to Iraq. We’d spent six months raiding houses just like this one inside and on the outskirts of Baghdad. And just like tonight, we were kept outside the house.

The only connection we had with the Marine Corps was the ten Marines over here with us. We only saw them a couple times a week. I had no idea where the rest of our Marine brethren were, and I didn’t care. They didn’t consider us Marines any more than we considered them brethren.

“Jack?” Bear said.

Bear had been my partner and best friend since our last day of recruit training. A recruit training experience cut four weeks short.

“Yeah,” I said.

“I’m tired of this.”

I turned my head, keeping my M16 aimed forward. Bear stared out into the distance. The faint orange glow of the fire cloud reflected off the sheen of sweat across his face.

“They just keep us posted outside,” he said. “Ain’t never treated us like this.”

I shrugged. He was right. But there was nothing we could do about it. Bear and I were on loan to the CIA and had to do whatever we were told. Before 9/11, we were part of the team. But the CIA agents we normally worked with stayed behind in the U.S. and Europe. The teams over here weren’t used to having two Marines with them and they weren’t receptive to the idea.

“What do you suggest we do?” I said. “Quit?”

Bear shook his head and straightened his six foot six body. He shifted his rifle in his hands and walked toward the end of the house. Beyond his large frame I spotted a group of men. Figured that was why Bear went on high alert.

There were six of them huddled together. They spoke in whispers and appeared to look in our direction. Another three men walked toward the group. From this distance they didn’t appear to be armed, but they had the cover of night on their side. Best to assume they were prepared to wreak havoc on our position.

“What do you make of that?” I asked.

Bear looked back at me with narrowed eyes and a clenched jaw.

“Trouble.”

Trouble lingered everywhere in this damn city. No one trusted us here. Every time I turned a corner I worried someone would be standing there waiting to take me out. The only person I could trust in Iraq was Bear. The CIA spec ops teams we’d been attached to looked down on us. They all seemed to be waiting for the right moment to drop us. Hell, for all I knew, they were inside that house negotiating our arrest.

Bear cleared his throat and then pointed toward the group. The nine men fanned out and began approaching our position. The sound of their voices rose from a murmur to light chatter. I made out distinct sounds. Despite being in Iraq for the past six months, I had a weak grasp on the language.

“What are they saying?” I asked.

Bear held up his hand, fingers outstretched. He cocked his head like he was looking up at the moon. His body crouched into a defensive position. The barrel of the M16 rose to waist level. He reached out with his left hand to steady the rifle. I did the same. The A3 was a much better option for security teams than the Marine standard issue A4. We could drop the entire group of men in under five seconds if we chose to do so.

“Talk to me, Bear,” I said.

He took three slow steps back, blocking my view of part of the street. He yelled something in Arabic.

The group stopped their advance. One man stepped forward. His tall, gangly body stood out from the short stocky men in the group. He lifted his arms, a handgun clutched in his right hand. I tensed and tapped my finger against the M16’s trigger. The harsh sounds of words spoken in Arabic filled the air. They echoed through the street. Then silence penetrated.

Bear turned to look at me, then smiled, then looked back at the men. He shouted in Arabic again and lifted his M16 to his shoulder.

The tall Iraqi raised his arms once again. He had put his gun away. He turned his back to us, said something to the group of men and started walking away. The mob held their positions for a moment. The tall man pushed past them. He spoke in an authoritative tone, his voice rising to a yell. They turned and followed him. A few looked back over their shoulders in our direction.

I exhaled loudly. Cool, calm and collected when others would panic. Now, however, I felt my hands trembling slightly. A deep breath reset me to normal. It was a typical sequence of events.

“Christ, Bear. What the hell was that about?”

He chuckled. “I think they’re on our side, Jack.”

“What makes you think that?” I used my sleeve to wipe a layer of cold sweat from my brow.

His smile widened. “They didn’t shoot.”

“What did you say to them… ah, forget it. You’re a crazy SOB. You know that, right?”

He shrugged, ignoring me and scanning darkened windows.

I leaned back against the wall, joined him. “You think this is what Keller had in mind when he shipped us off to the CIA?”

I had kept in touch with General Keller since he took us out of recruit training and placed us into the CIA sponsored program some eight years ago. I knew this was not what he had in mind.

Bear said, “Beats what we’d be doing otherwise.”

I threw my head back and nodded over my shoulder toward the door. “You sure about that?”

Bear shrugged. His big head shook slightly. He wiped his face and then looked at me.

“I’m not sure of much anymore, Jack. This is what I know. They ship us somewhere. We do our job. Pretty simple.”

I nodded. It was pretty simple. Eight years now and we knew the routine. We do our job. Only here, our job had been castrated down to nothing but a security detail while they did the work that would get the glory. Hopefully they’d get it soon and ship us back to the U.S.

We stood in silence. I stared at the orange glow of the cloud that covered half the sky.

“Noble. Logan.”

The voice ripped through the air like a mortar arcing over our heads. The door whipped open. Bealle stood in the doorway.

“We need you two inside.”

I turned to face Eddie Bealle, fourth man on the totem pole of the four-man CIA spec ops team. “We’re ready to go, Bealle.”

* * *

We followed Bealle through the narrow doorway and down an even narrower hallway. The smell of burned bread filled the house. I looked over my shoulder and saw Bear shuffling sideways behind me, his broad shoulders too wide to fit square between the thin plaster walls. We turned a corner to another stretch of hall that opened up to a dimly lit room.

“What’s the deal here, Bealle?” I asked.

Bealle said nothing. He just kept walking. His rank on the team was too low to justify acting like a prick. I had wanted the opportunity to beat it out of him for weeks now. He stepped through the opening, walked across the room and rejoined his team.

I followed, stopped and stepped to the right. Bear stepped to the left.

Scott Martinez looked over and nodded. He said something in Arabic to the Iraqi man sitting on the floor. The man’s arms and legs were bound with the thick plastic ties we carried. Martinez rose from his crouching position and walked toward me. He ran a hand through his sweat-soaked short brown hair and wiped blood spatter off his cheek. He stopped a few feet in front of me. Like most spec op guys, he was a good four inches shorter than me and a head shorter than Bear. There were exceptions. My eyes drifted across the room and locked on Aaron Kiser. He stood six foot two and could look me directly in the eye.

I scanned the room, my eyes inching along the yellow stained walls and ceiling. Paintings and family photos hung crooked in obvious spots. The furniture had been pushed to the far end of the room. The captive family huddled together at the other end. The man stared blankly at the floor between his bound feet. His wife sat behind him, her black hair frizzed and disheveled. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. Her hands rested in her lap, bound at the wrists. Hiding behind her were two small children, one boy and one girl. Their scared faces peeked over her shoulder. Their eyes were dark with fear and darted between the men holding their family captive.

I hated this part of the job. If we had something on the man, fine. He likely did something to bring us here. But why keep the family held up like this? It seemed to be the MO over here lately, at least when working with Martinez. And I had no choice but to go with it.

“Your job here,” Martinez said, as if he had read my mind, “is to provide support. No different than any other day. I give an order, you follow. Understand?”

I shifted my eyes to his and said nothing.

Bear coughed and crossed his arms across his chest.

Martinez dropped his head and shook it. A grin formed on his lips, but his eyes narrowed. We’d butted heads more than once, and I figured he had become as sick of me as I was of him.

“I’m so tired of you two Jarheads.”

I looked over at Bear and mouthed the phrase “Jarheads” at him. He laughed.

The bound man on the floor looked up. His glassed-over eyes made contact with mine. I felt my smile fade and my lips thinned. The man’s eyes burned with hatred and desperation. He took a deep breath, and then looked down at the floor.

“Follow, Noble.” Martinez turned and held up his hand while gesturing toward me. He walked across the room and stopped in front of the Iraqi man and then kicked him in the stomach.

The man fell forward into Martinez’s legs. His face contorted into a pained expression while he struggled to fill his lungs with air.

“Get this bastard off of me,” Martinez said.

Kiser stepped forward, grabbed the Iraqi by the back of his head and dragged him to the middle of the room.

Martinez moved to the middle and crouched down. He looked the Iraqi man in the eyes.

“I want you to see this. See what your failure to give us any information has led to.”

Martinez stood and walked over to the man’s wife. He reached under her arm and yanked her to her feet. She gasped, and her children cried out. They grabbed at her with their tiny hands. Bealle and Richard Gallo led the woman by her elbows to the wall across from me. Martinez followed. He stood in front of the woman, leaned in and whispered in her ear.

Her eyes scanned the room and met mine. A tear rolled down her thin face. Her mouth opened slightly. Her lips quivered. She bit her bottom lip and then mouthed the word “please” to me. Martinez brought a hand to her cheek, and she started crying.

Martinez moved to his right and looked over his shoulder at the man on the floor.

“Isn’t your wife worth it?” His face lit up as he said it, and his eyes grew wide and the corners of his mouth turned upwards in a sadistic grin. I noticed his respirations increased fivefold. The spec ops leader appeared to find the exchange exhilarating.

The Iraqi man said nothing. He held his head high and his shoulders back. He stood defiant on his knees.

Martinez brushed the woman’s hair back behind her ears and leaned in toward her again and whispered something to her. She let out a loud sob and then took a deep breath to compose herself. She looked toward her children and said something in Arabic, and then she turned to Martinez and spit in his face.

He stepped back and used the back of his hand to wipe his face. Then he struck her with the same hand. Her head jerked back and hit the wall with a thud. Her body slumped to the floor. Martinez reached out with one hand and grabbed her by the neck and with his other hand he pulled his pistol from its holster, pressing the black gun barrel against the side of her head. His hand slid up from her neck and squeezed her cheeks in. The pressure of his hands against the sides of her face jarred her mouth open. He jammed the barrel of the gun in her mouth.

“Is this what you want?” He paused a moment. “Huh? Want your kids to see your brains blown all over this wall?”

I felt rage build. This was wrong in every sense of the word. I took a step forward. Bear’s large hand came down on my shoulder and held me back.

“Get the kids out of the room, Martinez,” I said.

Martinez straightened up and cocked his head. His arms dropped to his side, and then he turned to face me. He stared at me for a few seconds and lifted a finger in my direction. The woman slid down the wall and crawled on the floor to her kids.

“Noble,” he said. “I told you that you follow my orders. Not the other way around. You got it?”

“Let,” I took a step forward, “the kids,” another step, “leave the room.” I kept moving forward until we met chest to chest and eyes to chin.

I heard weapons drawn around the room and the floor creaking behind me, a sign that Bear was moving into position.

“Gallo,” Martinez said.

“Yeah?” Gallo said, stepping out of the shadowy corner he had occupied.

“Move the man to the corner, then the woman,” Martinez said.

Gallo did as instructed. The family huddled together in the far corner of the room.

“Now stay here, Gallo,” Martinez said. “Rest of you outside. Now.”

I felt the barrel of a gun in my back but didn’t turn to see who it was.

“You two leave your weapons behind,” Martinez said.

We moved back through the narrow hall to the slightly wider doorway. Bear stepped outside first, I went second, and Kiser came out behind me with Bealle and finally Martinez in tow.

The moon now hovered directly above the street, beyond the cover of the orange smoke. I scanned the street and spotted a group of men hanging out a few blocks away. Were they the same men from earlier or perhaps a new group of men not as friendly as the last? Their chatter stopped. They turned to face us. A few of them stepped forward. Were they planning to attack? That wouldn’t be a bad thing, of course. It might give us and the CIA spec ops something in common to fight, instead of each other.

“You guys keep an eye on him,” Martinez said.

I swung my head around and saw Kiser and Bealle aim their guns on Bear. Like us, they carried Beretta M9 9mm pistols. Weapon of choice, it seemed. I followed Martinez’s movements as he paced a five foot area in the middle of the street.

“Noble,” Martinez said. “Step on out here.”

I looked at Bear, and he nodded in return, and then winked. I crossed the packed dirt yard and stepped into the street.

Martinez lunged at me the moment my foot hit the pavement.

I ducked his blow and followed up by pushing his back. His momentum sent him into the side of the house. He reached out with his arms and came to a grinding halt. He turned, rolled his head. His neck and shoulders cracked and popped.

Kiser and Bealle kept their weapons pointed at Bear, but their eyes were fixed on Martinez.

I made the next move and engaged Martinez. We danced in a tight spiral, trading blows of fist and foot. Every connection sent a cloudburst of sweat and blood into the air. The two of us struck and countered with the precision of two highly trained prize fighters. We were equals now.

Martinez threw a flurry of punches. One landed on the side of my head. The blow knocked me to the ground. I knew his next move would be to kick me in the midsection. I quickly rolled and got to my hands and feet.

Martinez backed up.

I looked to the side. Saw black combat boots less than four feet away. I didn’t have to look up to know the boots didn’t belong to Bear. He wore brown boots.

Martinez started toward me. I had to time my attack just right. If I struck too soon Martinez would be out of my reach. Too late and he’d be upon me before I would have a chance to react.

I took a deep breath as time slowed down. Martinez’s boots hit the packed dirt, heel then toe, left then right. He was ten feet way, then eight, then six.

I launched into the air to the right and twisted my body. Kiser didn’t have time to react other than to turn slightly toward me. His outstretched right arm moved too slowly. My body continued to twist to the right, and I whipped my left arm around. My hand wrapped into a fist and struck Kiser’s windpipe hard and fast. He let out a loud gasp as the impact caused him to drop his gun. His hands went to his neck as he stumbled backward and fell to the ground. He tried to suck air into his lungs, but his crushed throat wouldn’t allow it. His lungs shriveled and his face turned red, then blue, and scrunched up into a contorted look of agony.

Martinez closed the gap between the two of us. It was the right move at the wrong time. What he should have done was pulled his weapon. Again, I ducked and slipped to the side, letting his momentum carry him a good ten feet away from me.

I cast a quick glance toward Bear, who held Bealle’s limp body against the building with his left hand while his right delivered punch after furious punch.

With Bealle and Kiser out of commission, I turned to deal with Martinez, who had just scraped himself off the ground and was approaching. I still couldn’t figure out why he didn’t pull his gun on me. End it quickly. He stepped over Kiser’s limp body, coming to a stop a few feet away from me.

I heard a body hit the ground behind me and then Bear appeared next to me.

Martinez lunged forward. I moved to the side and brought a fist down across the bridge of his nose, sending him to the ground, hard. Bear picked him up, and then drove two hard blows to the man’s face and then tossed him onto the ground next to Bealle.

We reentered the house with our guns drawn and confronted Gallo. He gave up without a fight.

“You people should leave,” I said to the family. “Tonight. Now.”

Bear removed the thick plastic ties that bound their arms together.

The family huddled together. Each parent scooped up a kid.

“Follow us out and then go.” I grabbed my M16 from its resting spot on the wall and then led the family down the narrow hall. I stopped by the door, took a deep breath and then stuck my head outside. It was deserted. Martinez and his men and even the group of Iraqi men down the street had bailed. I saw flashing lights reflecting off the surrounding buildings as sirens filled the air.

“Bear,” I called down the hall. “We need to get out of here.”

Continue reading

Continue with Noble Beginnings, or explore the Jack Noble reading guide.

When Sam Foster calls Mitch Tanner in the opening chapter of The Depth of Darkness, work interrupts a family evening. Sam already knows enough about Mitch’s plans to point out that a babysitter is in place. It is a small joke, delivered with the ease of someone who has known him for years.

Sam is Mitch’s detective partner. Their history starts much earlier than their police partnership, and Mitch’s first-person narration gives readers a quick sense of how much life they have shared.

A friendship with a long history

They were friends as little kids, enemies for a stretch of school, and best friends again when football brought them together. Sam played defensive tackle alongside Mitch’s defensive end on Bonner’s state championship team.

Their paths separated after high school. Sam enlisted in the Army while Mitch became a police officer. They remained friends, and Sam later joined the police after his second stint in the Army. By the time the novel begins, they are working cases together in Philadelphia.

Those details make the relationship feel established before the reader sees much of it in action. They have been teammates before, and they know what it is like to spend time apart as well as side by side.

Comfortable in the quiet

At work, Sam handles the practical steps that keep an investigation moving: giving an officer instructions, bringing back coffee, and taking his place in an interview room while Mitch begins the questions.

There is humor between them, too. Mitch’s narration describes it as a way of coping with difficult scenes. Yet the most revealing moment may be a quiet drive to the station. After nearly thirty-five years of knowing each other, neither feels obliged to fill every silence.

That is a useful introduction to Sam for readers who enjoy detective fiction built around an established partnership. Watch the exchanges, but also the pauses. Familiarity shows in both.

Start with The Depth of Darkness

Meet Sam alongside Mitch in The Depth of Darkness, by L.T. Ryan. Follow the Mitch Tanner reading guide for the rest of the series.

Header art: AI-generated editorial illustration of a fictional urban setting.