Caitlin’s story starts in Soldiers of God, a novel that’s a bridge between the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” and the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” (someday I might write a sequel). I have many strong female characters, but this FBI agent is sometimes a bit fragile as well as generally strong, the first because she falls for a priest, Juan Pablo Gomez, who she runs as an informant. Subplot one. Vladimir Kalinin, the ubiquitous villain in many of my novels, and most recently in one extended fictional timeline in the “Clones and Mutantss Trilogy,” is back creating more mayhem.  Subplot two. And she has to solve a hate crime too.  Subplot three.  (Are they connected?  Read the book.)

Asako O’Brian first appears in the first novel of the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” (Full Medical, my very first book). She’s an FBI forensics specialist who becomes friends with Caitlin Murphy, although their friendship is a bit rocky at the beginning. Caitlin is twenty years younger than Asako and not known for her sweet disposition; Asako, on the other hand, is seasoned and sweet.

Caitlin has a reputation for being smart as a whip and very intense.  Complicating the usual problem of balancing an FBI career with a meaningful relationship, some consider her brains and intensity as reasons why some men shy away from her.

Asako sees a lot of her younger self in Caitlin with some notable exceptions.  Where Asako is  a petite brunette, Caitlin is a tall and large-boned redhead, the smallest of four siblings only because three brothers were former Notre Dame linemen.  She thinks her height also drives away some men, those whose egos suffer when dating a woman taller than them.

Caitlin has become a bit of a loner because of her job and insecurities.  Caitlin’s mornings and evenings often are focused on Miss Boots.  Her cat offers her better companionship than most men.  She has a personality, not a fake one some lout dreams up to impress Caitlin.  The cat is always happy to be on her master’s lap purring while Caitlin reads or watches TV, anything to get her mind off her ticking biological clock and the hypocrisy, prejudices, chaos, and violence she has to deal with in her job, and in the world she lives in.

***

The first edition of Full Medical is only available in print from Xlibris Publishing; the second edition is only available as an ebook from Amazon and Smashwords.  The first edition of Soldiers of God is only available in print from Infinity Publishing; the second edition is only available as an ebook from Amazon and Smashwords.  (These are both sci-fi thrillers; neither one is a cat mystery.)

The Great Spring Thaw Sale continues.  Every week a new ebook goes on sale at Smashwords for two weeks.  If you missed one, please note that all my ebook are reasonably priced.  Smashwords is the only place you’ll find my ebooks on sale.  Use the coupon code for a book on sale during checkout.

In libris libertas…

[Note: This article is part of the new series of blog posts, “Character Bios”—you’ll find them all in the blog category of the same name.]

Penny Castro. Born in New Jersey, Penelope “Penny” Castro gave up a athletic scholarship as a swimmer to join the U.S.N. where she became a search and rescue diver.  That experience landed her a job with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department as a forensic diver. She is a survivor of the biological attack on the West Coast that soon became worldwide. In the aftermath, she managed to survive many threats and find her way to a refugee camp where she was instrumental in improving the situation for survivors. Her adventures are described in the post-apocalyptic thriller The Last Humans (will be released in 2019 by Black Opal Books).

Penny is a small, strong woman with a quick tongue who is a bit uncomfortable with her Latina features—black, curly hair surrounding a face with Native American and African American features—but she gets beyond that and even creates a family amidst all the chaos.  She now lives with her husband, an old man she considers a father figure, an adopted child, and two children of her own.  They own a small ranch in California’s Central Valley.

Esther Brookstone. This Scotland Yard Inspector who works in the Art and Antiques Division is art thieves and unscrupulous art dealers’ worst enemy. She’s tough and tenacious and surprisingly lethal for her 60+ years. She’s a widow three times; her current love interest is Bastiann van Coevorden, an Interpol agent who’s twenty years younger.

Her colleagues call her Miss Marple, but they don’t dare do it to her face.  Her most recent case involved the search for a lost Rembrandt painting that was stolen by the Nazis in World War Two.  It turned a lot more deadly than most of her cases.  That case is described in the mystery/thriller Rembrandt’s Angel (Penmore Press, 2017).

Esther’s father was a vicar but her last husband was an atheist, so she’s a bit confused about religion, but all her husbands and her father gave her a moral backbone and righteous stubbornness that motivate her in the pursuit of the bad guys.  Details about how she moved from MI6 to Scotland Yard are obscure.  She admires the tough American cop, NYPD homicide detective Rolando Castilblanco, who still owes her a curry dinner.

Esther is kicking around the idea of retirement, starting an art gallery, and spending more time at the Scottish castle she inherited from a distant relative.  Her big decision?  Whether Bastiann will continue to be a part of her life.

Bastiann van Coevorden.  This Interpol agent prefers to find the bad guys and let local authorities handle the rest, which is Interpol’s general business model.  He’s not above the little firefight now and then when the going gets rough, though, and his current love interest, Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone has led him into such situations, as has his American cop friends, Chen and Castilblanco.

Still, Bastiann is sophisticated, not unlike Hercule Poirot (he resembles the actor who played Christie’s famous character).  He’s from Belgium, though, but his mother was a French spy.  He knows Esther has a background in MI6, but he’s not privy to the details.  Her present focus on art crimes fits right in with hi general obsession with apprehending criminals who make Europe and the world unsafe.

Bastiann has also worked on cases with Detective Castilblanco.  He hasn’t yet figured out if Esther Brookstone wants to settle down a bit and have a committed relationship, but he’s willing to bide his time.

***

Did you miss Rembrandt’s Angel? Both that novel and my novel The Collector present my unique thesis that stolen artwork can be used as collateral for other nefarious criminal activity. In Rembrandt’s Angel (Penmore Press, 2017), Bastiann van Coevorden, an Interpol agent, has to manage Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone’s obsession with recovering the Rembrandt, “An Angel with Titus’ Features,” stolen by the Nazis in World War Two. Esther’s mission becomes deadlier and different from her usual cases in the Art and Antiques Division of the Yard. The duo takes readers on a wild tour of Europe and South America before the story reaches its thrilling climax, as they find out what the stolen paintings are used to finance. In the process, the couple’s romantic interludes become a full-blown romance. Available on Amazon, Smashwords and its affiliates (Apple, B&N, Kobo, etc), and in most bookstores (if they don’t have it, ask for it).

The earlier novel, The Collector, also features Esther and Bastiann in cameo roles, and he also appears in Aristocrats and Assassins and Gaia and the Goliaths. These three ebooks are available on Amazon and Smashwords.

All of these books can be read independently.

Want free fiction? Peruse my list of PDFs on the “Free Stuff & Contests” webpage and follow the directions for downloading.  (Or you can just go to the OneDrive file folder.) You’ll find many stories there—mysteries, thrillers, and sci-fi.

The Great Spring Thaw Sale still continues on Smashwords.

In libris libertas!

[Note: This article is part of the new series of blog posts, “Character Bios”—you’ll find them all in the blog category of the same name.]

Mary Jo Melendez. The daughter of a NJ cop who was the son of immigrants, Mary Jo Melendez has been on a roller coaster ride since she left the Navy. After Maria Jose Melendez graduated from a private Catholic high school, she enlisted in the U.S.N. and became a Master-at-Arms, following in her father’s footsteps. Upon leaving the Navy, she accepted a security job at a NJ company with Top Secret Pentagon projects. Framed by a black ops organization when the Russians stole one of the company’s projects, she served time in prison until she escaped and began to clear her name, a process that took her Europe and South America and through many ups and downs on that roller coaster.

She then could take another security job in the Silicon Valley where American and Russian agents as well as a stalker pursued her, the first wanting the secrets she still possessed and the stalker wanting revenge for perceived transgressions. While defeating those groups, she met ex-FBI agent and PI Mario Di Stefano, later marrying him. They still live in the Silicon Valley and now have two adopted children, Nuru and Li-Ping.

Rumor has it that after Americans and Russians, Chinese are now after her for the secrets she possesses.  Stay tuned.

The MECHs.  All those pursuing Mary Jo Melendez think she knows where the MECHs are.  Does she? Jena Crowley and Ned Wakefield are the MECHs. Terribly wounded in the Middle East, these Marines who fought terrorists entered a special Pentagon program designed to create the super soldier.  MECH is an acronym for “Mechanically Enhanced Cybernetic Human.” Their prosthetics are special and part of the program’s goals was also to design wearable, smart armor for them, making them super inside and outside. They and all the notes corresponding to the program were stolen by the Russians, but Mary Jo helped them escape.

Marine Jena Crowley was born in Dallas, Texas. She volunteered for combat duty as soon as that was approved for women by the Pentagon. She was captured by the Taliban but freed by other Marines shortly thereafter, but not before she was tortured and raped. That Taliban group was later destroyed by an air attack, but some who escaped were later killed by Jena and her comrades in a new unit. She continued to distinguish herself in combat in Afghanistan until an IED took out their Humvee in the Kandahar region. She was the sole survivor. She recovered in Germany and Walter Reed in DC. From there, she volunteered for the Top Secret special prosthetics program in NJ. Her only remaining relative is a sister who lives in San Antonio. She and her sister haven’t spoken since she enlisted in the Marines.

Marine Ned Wakefield was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was an expert marksman and specialized in urban warfare. He was injured in the first battles to retake Mosul from ISIS. An IED buried in the road exploded and injured him, also killing his three comrades in the same jeep. He also had recovery time in Germany and at Walter Reed before volunteering for the same Top Secret prosthetics program where he met Jena Crowley. He has no living relatives. Both parents were killed in a car accident in Florida.

In a secret Moscow lab, Jena and Ned’s friendship blossomed into something else. Resigned to their fate, they were surprised when Mary Jo Melendez, their old friend from NJ, appeared at the Moscow lab where they were being held.

***

The first two books in the “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries Series” are now on sale at Smashwords and available on Amazon as well. Muddlin’ Through and Silicon Slummin’…and Just Getting’ By will soon be followed by Goin’ the Extra Mile to complete the trilogy.  You can also read either of the first two books for free in exchange for an honest review.

In libris libertas!

[Note: This article is part of the new series of blog posts, “Character Bios”—you’ll find them all in the blog category of the same name.]

Part of a secret genetics program on a futuristic version of the International Space Station, Mr. Paws became friends with Shashibala Garcia and the other three kids in her gang, the Fearsome Four, who lead similar lives to Army brats living on the old military bases of the past. In other words, they get into trouble, and trouble finds them.

Mr. Paws is more like the reclusive scientist who created him, though, in the sense that he’s an adult cat with human-like emotions and feelings. He’s also a genius, a mathematician interested in number theory but willing to tutor the kids in their calculus assignments.

He values the adventures he had with the Fearsome Four on the ISS. They set out to solve the mystery of his origins, but that pursuit led them into a lot more trouble than they’d bargained for. In the process, he was torn between his maker and the kids, the most charming humans he’d ever met.

Mr. Paws has his own genotype—superfelis domesticus. He’s unique, though. He’s Dr. Watson to Shashi’s Sherlock Holmes, and he chronicled all those adventures on the space station. He has no desire to write more chronicles, though. AIs in the far reaches of Earth’s solar system aren’t as sophisticated as the one on the ISS, and he needs a good editor! Besides, the poor fellow became discouraged: the censors on Earth watered down his book so much that he didn’t feel like publishing. A friend helped him send the manuscript back in time to two authors whose books he’d read, but Mr. Paws is sure that Earth in their time period will just call it a sci-fi mystery. Maybe Watson and Holmes had a similar experience?

Mr. Paws is currently stationed near Saturn where he works with an astrophysicist he met on the ISS. He hasn’t had a chance to socialize much with other cats, but he’d like to meet a nice lady-cat someday and have some kittens, hoping the lot of them would be like the Fearsome Four…or Five…or Six.

***

The Secret Lab (2nd ed). Four students on the International Space Station discover the origins of a mutant cat and uncover a conspiracy in a sci-fi mystery that’s sure to entertain young adults and adults who are young at heart. In a new second edition completely rewritten and reedited by Steven M. Moore’s collaborator A. B. Carolan. Now available in a print version (Create Space) as well as all ebook formats (Amazon and Smashwords).

From a review of the first edition: “I will disclose this: I picked up The Secret Lab because of Mr. Paws, the intelligent cat. Yes, I could not resist the temptation to read the adventure of a sentient, mathematics inclined cat, told by Steven M. Moore. It exceeded my expectations. Mr. Paws is the result of a genetics experiment aboard a facility orbiting Earth in 2147. The cat and his newly found friends, a group of four smart teenagers, find themselves in an intrigue with corporate agendas, young curiosity, dangerous and ethically problematic research, relationships and their difficulties when coming of age. The complexity is enthralling, but the author also makes it easy to follow, using a light, natural style to tell us their story.”–Alfaniel Aldavan, in a Smashwords’ 5-star review

In libris libertas!

[Note: This article is part of the new series of blog posts, Character Bios—you’ll find them all in the blog category of the same name.]

Dao-Ming Chen. Born on Long Island in the state of New York to Chinese immigrant parents, Dao-Ming was an accomplished diver in high school and college. After studying economics and training in the Army ROTC, she became part of an experimental and secret special ops group for women in the Green Berets (U.S. Army). Many of her activities in that group and its very existence are still classified Top Secret. She joined the NYPD where she first met Castilblanco as a uniformed cop; the case involved the murder of a Central Park carriage driver (“The Case of the Carriageless Horse,” in World Enough and Crime).  She spent time in the narcotics division (some cases are described in Pop Two Antacids and Have Some Java), and has partnered with Rolando Castilblanco since 2014 (their first case together as detectives is described in The Midas Bomb).

She is a tall, strong woman who doesn’t smile much—Castilblanco calls her his “Asian Mona Lisa”—but she’s in excellent physical shape and is good at martial arts.  She speaks both Cantonese and Mandarin as well as English.  She is married to A.T.F. agent Eric Kulmala, and they now have one child.

She’s Catholic and a conservative, and she and Castilblanco are like yin and yang, but a great crime-solving duo.

Rolando Castilblanco. Born in the Bronx to Puerto Rican immigrant parents, Rolando became interested in history in high school. He studied criminology at John Jay College and entered the U.S.N. after graduation, where he became a SEAL and participated in many special op missions. He also started as a uniformed cop in the N.Y.P.D. and soon became a homicide detective; the murder of the carriage driver described above was his first homicide case. He’s progressive, but still works well with his partner, Detective Chen. Major cases appear in the seven novels of the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series.” Some minor cases are short stories in Pop Two Antacids and Have Some Java and various PDFs Steve has free for the asking.

He’s a tall, corpulent man who often mixes barbs, similes, and metaphors in his speech.  He speaks Spanish and some Urdu and Pashtun as well as English.  Because of his love for ethnic foods, he tends to have weight problems and suffers from acid reflux.  He is married to the TV news reporter Pam Stuart. They adopted his cousin’s too kids.

He recently converted from Catholicism to Buddhism.

***

Gaia and the Goliaths. #7 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” is on sale at Smashwords until March 31, a 50% price reduction. The NYPD homicide detectives are given the case of a murdered environmental activists. Like many of their cases, it blows up to have international ramifications. Available in all ebook formats, including .mobi (Kindle). Use the coupon code on checkout.

In libris libertas!