Coming 1/13/2025 from Wild Rose Press:
The second novel in the Tri-Star Investigations series
Marko Korb, a fat, egotistical, and brilliant deective is a Bosnian Jew, veteran of the war with Serbia. He has been living in the U.S. for the past 20 years and is renowned for his investigative work. His assistant, Kelan Su, is a young Chinese-American woman who does most of the investigative legwork. She is a former Chicago police officer, licensed attorney, and martial arts expert. Desmond St. Clair, Korb and Su’s Tortolan, multi-talented chef, tech expert, and former British SAS commando joins the duo. Ripped Genes concerns the murder of Alan Scanlon, a medical scientist, head of the Shabel Institute, who had fraudulently patented and monopolized the research on the gene related to the rare genetic disease, feraxia. The restriction on feraxia research caused by the patent is detrimental to those who suffer from the ailment. Golda Merino is the mother of a child with feraxia and head of a feraxia support group that was supporting the research with money, tissue samples, and data. Korb and Su are working with Attorney Cheryl Dain who is defending Golda on the charge of murdering Dr. Scanlon. The Tri-Star Investigations trio must identify the murderer in order to prove Golda’s innocence. The mystery sends the reader on a tour of Chicago’s underworld, their methods of money laundering, and the quirks of gene patenting.
Also from Wild Rose Press:
Venetian Bind centers on Marko Korb, a fat, egotistical, and brilliant detective and his assistant Kelan Su, a young Chinese-American woman. She is a former Chicago police officer, licensed attorney, and martial arts expert. Korb, a Bosnian Jew, living in the U.S. for the past 20 years and renowned for his investigative work, has been summoned to Venice to investigate the murder of Stefan Pakulić, a former Serbian paramilitary leader and accused war criminal. Korb had been instrumental in bringing information to Western countries about the Serbian atrocities during the war in Bosnia. He and his family had personally suffered at the hands of Pakulić. The daughter of a Bosnian expat who had rescued Korb during the war is a suspect in the killing. Korb is torn between proving his genius by finding the killer and his sympathy with the possible perpetrator; hence the Venetian bind.
Kelan Su, who does Korb’s legwork, is frustrated that the detective’s usual armchair and rational approach to detecting is being compromised both by his emotional involvement and by the need for him to physically conduct some of the investigation due to his entree into the Bosnian community in Venice. The investigation leads them to Pakulić’s connection with a neo-fascist Italian organization planning a terrorist action in Venice. Korb and Su must find the murderer, forestall the terrorist action, and protect the daughter of Korb’s rescuer.
TRI-STAR INVESTIGATIONS #1
Venetian Bind