Dear readers, today's book spotlight is a popular detective series with humor and comedy thrown into this interesting mix concoted and created by author David D. D'Aguanno -- The Brett Cornell Mystery Series.
The 5 popular Brett Cornell Mysteries featured today - Read an excerpt from each book posted in this blog along with links to the author's website, purchase links to the bookstore and links to multiple star reviews that the Brett Cornell Series has received.
AUTHOR LINKS : Connect with author David D. D'Aguanno
Twitter handle: @DaveDAguanno
THE BRETT CORNELL MYSTERY SERIES- book features and excerpts
Ebook : BRETT AEROBICIZES (Brett Cornell Mystery#2)
Genre : Mystery, comedy-mystery
ISBN (print
format): 978-1470005375
Formats: Kindle, Nook, Paperback
Reviews : 4-5stars
Blurb : A man is found dead with a bullet hole in
his chest, and private detective Brett Cornell is the #1 suspect.
It might have something to do with the fact that there were witnesses who had
seen him punching the guy around only a few days earlier. Or -- more likely -- it might be because the police have discovered that the
fatal bullet had been fired from HIS gun!
In the second novel of this detective series set in the late 1980s,
self-proclaimed unscrupulous bastard Brett Cornell has to figure out who's trying
to set him up:Could it be his lovely but meek new client? Or perhaps her equally lovely but far from meek room-mate? Or might it actually be the beautiful and dynamic aerobics instructor he's
recently taken up with?
In the meantime, Brett's legendary Adonis-like features get severely damaged
when he ends up catching the beating of his life -- emotionally as well as
physically -- before he finally nails the identity of the real killer!
Excerpt from BRETT AEROBICIZES (Brett Cornell Mystery#2):
There was a kind of wheezing sound as Ginger let out some air
through her nostrils, and then she followed me as far as the bedroom, where I
stopped and turned around towards her when she reached out and touched my arm.
“Hands off, babe,” I said to her in a tight-sounding voice, and after
backing off from me, she told me that if I should happen to bring Marilyn into
“our” bed, it would constitute the end of our entire relationship.
“When you move out,” I replied, walking the rest of the way on into the
bathroom,” do like Karen did, and clear all of your feminine paraphernalia out
of here before Marilyn moves in and takes over.”
By the time I finished that sentence, I was already in the bathroom,
leaning in a trifle towards the mirror as I thought I saw a couple of hairs of
my mustache slightly out of alignment with all the others. I expected Ginger to
dart right in there after me, but she took me a little by surprise because it
was almost a full sixty seconds before she came in, and even then, she only
leaned against the door-frame and crossed her arms in front of her to put her
hands on opposite shoulders.
I’d been concentrating just then on the important task of straightening
out the old mustache, but for one moment, when I took a real quick glance at her reflection standing behind me, I
said to myself,” God! Is she beautiful!” – But it was just that one moment, and
then reality came rushing back into my brain as I heard her begin to speak,
looking down at the floor as she did so.
“When you asked me to move in with you last Friday, I didn’t realize
that you were intent upon inflicting all sorts of mental punishment upon me –
but I made up my mind that I would put up with it as long as I possibly could,
because I – Well, never mind that.” She paused to lower her head even more, and
then she went on,” I have never been treated so horribly by a man, and yet, I
don’t know what to do – to please you, Brett –“
Feeling restless, and instinctively telling myself that I needed to
escape the discomfort I was beginning to feel, I walked on past her, and her
body made room for me to get through the doorway as I did so. Then I retrieved
my pack of Marlboros from the top of my bureau and put it in the front pocket
of my shirt. Seeing that she continued to face into the interior of the
bathroom, with her hands still grasping her two arms, I said to the back of
her,
“Don’t even try it.”
“Try what?” she immediately asked me, still without turning around and
facing me.
“You know what you’re trying to do to me, and I’m telling you to knock
it off.” Then I deliberately paused, just to give her enough time to respond to
what I’d just said if she felt so inclined, but since she didn’t, I went ahead
and told her,” You know why I asked you to move in. It was to spite Karen.
That’s all. So, just ‘cause I’ve been letting you sleep here for the past week,
don’t get any stupid ideas in your head about – Just don’t, O.K.? Things are
the way they are – ‘cause that’s the way they are.” And then, cursing at myself
for talking gibberish, I set my jaw more firmly and continued relentlessly,”
You know as well as I do that all I have to do is say the word, and Marilyn
will move right in and take your place, and then, for all I care, you can go
soak your sad self in a hot basin somewhere on Skid Row.”
Ebook : BRETT ALWAYS WINS (Brett Cornell Mystery#3)
Genre : Mystery, comedy-mystery
ISBN (print
format): 978-1470098346
Formats: Kindle, Nook, Paperback
Reviews : Multiple 5stars
Blurb : According to the police report, the
attractive, blue-eyed blonde had been shot to death in her apartment
at around 7:30 p.m. Then how was it possible that nearly 50 people saw her dining and dancing at a
nearby club over 3 hours later?
Set in the late 1980s, the third Brett Cornell novel finds the studly private
detective surrounded by the usual bevy of beautiful women, as well as a few
seedy characters who foolishly decide to butt heads with the supreme unscrupulous
bastard himself.
But Brett's road to victory isn't easy, especially when he receives a frantic
call for help which leads to his being severely beaten right outside his office
building and, later, being held and threatened at gunpoint.
Soon, bullets start flying, fists start flying -- and even a sledgehammer is
used -- in one of the most violent cases of his career, before Brett finally
wins!
Cute
little Paula Marshall came walking towards me in the parking lot, and she
offered me a feeble smile when she came close enough to touch.
“Well, it’s done, I’ve got the money,” she
announced, although she didn’t look any too happy about it. For my own part, I
wasn’t exactly ready to bust out singing the Star-Spanish Banner either. For
one thing, I didn’t even know the words, and for another thing, my singing
voice ain’t exactly at the same level as Burt Baccarat’s or that Deaf Leopard
guy, to name just two of the best country-and-western singers you’d ever care
to listen to! But I did manage to put a big smile on my face upon hearing the
great news about the money finally being just a little itty-bit closer to being
put in my own bank account.
“Make sure it’s all there before we drive
out of the parking lot,” I advised her.
“Do you think somebody might try to rob
us?” she asked me, suddenly all a-tremble.
“Nah, I just wanna make sure you’re not
trying to rip me off, that’s all,” I said to her, then I chuckled
good-naturedly and told her,” What I meant to say was, ’We wanna make sure
Donna Ruby don’t think we’re trying to rip her off, that’s all.’”
Whether she believed me or not didn’t
really matter a whole lot, as far as I was concerned, so we got back in the
car, and Paula proceeded to direct me to the address she had found out on her
own as being that of the woman named Donna Ruby who she had every reason to
believe was ruining her pathetic little life. And so, just to convince me one
more time that she was one totally mixed-up gal, the first thing she said to me
when we stepped out of the car upon our arrival at Donna Ruby’s apartment
building was: “Do I look all right?”
“Not bad, considering you’re about to make
an ass of yourself,” I told her, then hurriedly corrected myself since I was
probably pushing my luck to its absolute limit,” That is to say, ‘Not bad, you
can pass yourself off as a highly respectable woman who sincerely wants to save
her marriage at any cost.”
“Why, thank you, Brett,” Little Miss
Clueless replied, smiling faintly. “It was very nice of you to say that.”
Yup,
I told myself. She definitely wants
me to make mad and passionate love to her. They all do.
Ebook : BRETT GETS HAMMERED (Brett Cornell Mystery#5)
Genre : Mystery, comedy-mystery
ISBN (print
format): 978-1475097184
Formats: Kindle, Nook, Paperback
Reviews : Multiple 4.5-5stars
Blurb : The
beautiful and alluring Tammy Rankin and her brother Andy were positively
grief-stricken when their well-to-do father died of a fatal heart
attack.
In fact, their grief was intensified when they realized that their young
stepmother stood to inherit his vast fortune -- that is, unless they could
somehow suggest foul play and pin a murder rap on the woman, notwithstanding
her probable innocence.
They obviously needed to enlist the services of someone who was totally devoid
of any amount of scruples whatsoever.
A perfect cue, then, for the entrance of self-proclaimed unscrupulous bastard
Brett Cornell who -- as expected -- is instantly attracted to the prospect of
getting his own greedy hands on a portion of the Rankin inheritance -- and on the lovely Tammy Rankin herself!
However, will his unscrupulous nature alone, coupled with his stunning
Adonis-like features, be enough for him to pull it off? -- especially when he's
been spending the last few months of his life in a state of almost constant inebriation?
The man gave out a short laugh, and then he
looked down briefly at the floor beneath where he was standing, before looking
back up at me and saying,
“You certainly seem in better spirits than you were in the last time I
spoke with you – and I’m glad of that. But I don’t know, Brett. I keep thinking
and keep hoping that someday real soon you’ll trust me enough – maybe even like me enough – to open up and tell me
why you had that falling out with that beautiful young woman you were seeing at
the time of your bout against Gil Bailey – if only to make me understand how
you could throw away something so precious –“
“Stop right there, Joe!” I told him, holding my right hand straight out
in his direction, palm facing out. “You don’t know what I know – or what I think I know – which I know don’t make
no sense, but –“ and I had to stop myself as the realization came upon me that
I was entering the kind of emotional territory that I’d always found to be
completely alien and even hostile to my basically unscrupulous nature. Luckily,
however, Raff didn’t give me any more time to stumble all over myself as I was
starting to do just then, as he came to the rescue (so to speak) by saying to
me,
“You’re right, of course. There’s a lot I don’t know about this
situation, and about what you were led to believe or suspect or whatever – but
what I do know is this: There’s a young woman involved here who’s wasting away
emotionally, who’s confused and scared and just about ready to give up, and I
would consider it a horrible sin if I didn’t at least make an attempt to remedy
the situation for her – and for you, too, of course -- in any way that I
could.”
I had originally planned on taking a nice brisk shower and then
high-tailing it on over to Miss Lola Buchanan’s where I was fairly certain I’d
be greeted warmly and tenderly. She, so far, had impressed me as being a really
sweet and gentle young thing –
But she wasn’t Ginger.
Then, while I simply sat down on the wooden bench that ran parallel to
the row of lockers I’d just been standing in front of, I kept my lips closed
and looked down at my feet.
And Joe Raff placed a hand on one of my shoulders and told me,
“All I can tell you is this, Brett: I could be wrong, but -- I’ve always
believed that the sincere and passionate love of a beautiful woman can
transform a man’s life and his soul in a truly miraculous way. Just give that some thought, would you
please?”
He
didn’t say anything else after that, and he increased the pressure of his hand
upon my shoulder – just a tad – without me even shaking it off me as I normally
reacted whenever a man put his hands upon me, uninvited.
And so, I just sat there for several minutes, even after Joe had left,
and I can’t even recall exactly what it was I was either thinking or feeling at
that time. But I can state with absolute certainty that I was NOT thinking
about Lola Buchanan – and our date that evening never did take place.
And I can’t even offer a rational explanation as to why it happened that
way.
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