Article 15
by M.T. Bass
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Mystery
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BLURB:
“She was one in a
million…and the day I met her I should have bought a lottery ticket instead.”
***~~~***
Griffith Crowe, the "fixer" for a Chicago law firm, falls for his current assignment, Helena Nicholson, the beautiful heir of a Tech Sector venture capitalist who perished in a helicopter crash leaving her half a billion dollars, a Learjet 31, and unsavory suspicions about her father's death. As he investigates, the ex-Navy SEAL crosses swords with Helena’s step-brother, the Pentagon’s Highlands Forum, and an All-Star bad guy somebody has hired to stop him. When Griff finds himself on the wrong side of an arrest warrant he wonders: Is he a player or being played?
Lawyers and Lovers and Guns…Oh, my!
***~~~***
Griffith Crowe, the "fixer" for a Chicago law firm, falls for his current assignment, Helena Nicholson, the beautiful heir of a Tech Sector venture capitalist who perished in a helicopter crash leaving her half a billion dollars, a Learjet 31, and unsavory suspicions about her father's death. As he investigates, the ex-Navy SEAL crosses swords with Helena’s step-brother, the Pentagon’s Highlands Forum, and an All-Star bad guy somebody has hired to stop him. When Griff finds himself on the wrong side of an arrest warrant he wonders: Is he a player or being played?
Lawyers and Lovers and Guns…Oh, my!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT:
The low, almost husky yet honey smooth female voice poured
seductively over Griff and blanked his mind as he turned into the pilot’s
lounge. Though dimly lit, as they all were to facilitate napping, her red dress
glowed like a hearth, yet she still wore her sunglasses as she studied her
iPhone’s screen, slouching and sitting askew in one of the La-Z-Boy recliners
with her legs crossed. Griff’s eye was drawn to the slow but rhythmic bounce of
her stiletto heel. Predator had become prey. She took off her Jackie Ohhs,
looked Griff up and down, then took a deep breath.
“Mmmm…tall, dark and dangerous…just the way I like them.”
Griff locked onto her blue-gray eyes and surrendered. He
leaned against the door jam. His inside voice taunted, No plan survives contact
with the enemy.
“I couldn’t help but notice Lance’s Escalade on the ramp. He
is a conniving bastard, isn’t he? Of course, he is a lawyer, but he does excel
at it. Not to mention the unseemly delight he takes in it.”
“Always has,” Griff said. “As long as I’ve known him.”
“Then, you really shouldn’t be surprised.”
Griff smiled, realizing it wasn’t Mayor Daley’s fault that
he was still on the ground in Chicago. “Name’s Griff.”
“Yes. I know.”
He waited, his face an implacable facade, one molded and
hammered into place on the Coronado Beach while enduring BUD/S training. “You
got a name? Or will you answer to minx or vixen?”
“Hmmm…you like the
‘X’ words. I prefer Helena.”
“So…how long will we be playing Three Card Monte with modern
art…Helena?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
M.T. Bass is a scribbler of fiction who holds fast to the notion
that while victors may get to write history, novelists get to write/right
reality. He lives, writes, flies and makes music in Mudcat Falls, USA.
Born in Athens, Ohio, M.T. Bass grew up in St. Louis, Missouri.
He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University, majoring in English and Philosophy,
then worked in the private sector (where they expect “results”) mainly in the
Aerospace & Defense manufacturing market. During those years, Bass
continued to write fiction. He is the author of eight novels: My Brother’s
Keeper, Crossroads, In the Black, Somethin’ for Nothin’, Murder by Munchausen,
The Darknet (Murder by Munchausen Mystery #2), The Invisible Mind (Murder by
Munchausen Mystery #3) and Article 15. His writing spans various genres,
including Mystery, Adventure, Romance, Black Comedy and TechnoThrillers. A
Commercial Pilot and Certified Flight Instructor, airplanes and pilots are
featured in many of his stories. Bass currently lives on the shores of Lake
Erie near Lorain, Ohio.
M.T. Bass Author Links
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/owlworks/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Owlworks
Article 15 Purchase Links
Author Web Site Info Page: https://mtbassauthor.wordpress.com/scribblings/article-15-griffith-crowe-1/
Amazon: TBA July 24, 2019
Kobo: TBA
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You’re marooned on a small island with
one person and one item of your choice—who is that person and what item do you
have?
This is an easy one: My stunning, mystery companion, Lola, and my
trusty Guild D-35 acoustic guitar. With love and music, what more could I need?
Besides, idle fingers are the devil’s playground.
What is your idea of how to spend
romantic time with your significant other?
We have the best seats in the house right
out back, looking out to sea. Pair that with wine, a roaring fire, and
Delmonicos or bourbon brown sugar glazed salmon off the fire…the moon and stars
above. It works every time.
When you start a new story, do you begin
with a character, or a plot?
Both, I think. After months, sometimes years of loading up
my brain with seemingly irrelevant data, there’s usually a snippet of a scene
synthesizing an odd combination of items that percolates up to the top of my consciousness.
For example, Waxy and Albert awakening in the wreckage of the plane crash in Somethin’
for Nothin’ came after inputing Animal House, Treasure of the Sierra
Madre and a series of books about bush flying in Alaska. In My Brother’s
Keeper, it was Hawk reloading for the movie starlet in the motel bed and
getting the call about his brother’s death. The insanely absurd memo at the
beginning of In the Black calling for right-handed people to be
left-handed and visa-versa was one I feared would show up in my in-box one day
from some power mad middle manager. But his one, Article 15, started with no character, no plot, just a
single spoken line: “She was one in a million and the day I met her I should
have bought a lottery ticket instead.”
It took a while to finally put those words into Griff’s mouth, but I
knew all along it was going to be trouble for him.
If they were to make the story of your
life into a movie, who should play you?
Top Gun…Days of Thunder…Mission
Impossible…Jack Reacher. Yup, obviously, Tom Cruise would be the most logical choice. But I’m
sure that once I inevitably get booted off the screenplay, it would probably be
either Leonard or Sheldon from Big Bang Theory.
Who’s your favorite horror villain and
why?
Hmmm, I’d say it would have to be a toss
up between Norman Bates and Hannibal Lector.
There’s that dark side lurking out there in everyone. It’s there in the
eyes. You know, like Norman says, “We all go a little crazy sometimes.”
Do you have an historical crush and if
so, who is it?
This one goes back a little ways—like
almost thirty centuries ago: the face which launched a thousand ships, Helen of
Troy. She appears in In the Black (Helen Troyer) and again in Article
15 (Helena). There’s always a woman…and where there is, trouble is sure to
follow. Sweet, delicious trouble…
