Donald Harstad, a 26-year police veteran, has firsthand knowledge of small town police departments. This background enables him to create the authentic details, realistic dialogue, and suspenseful twists in Known Dead. Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman is dozing in his cruiser near parklands in Nation County, Iowa when he hears popping sounds. Immediately, his radio screams to life with a call for assistance. What started as a simple raid on a marijuana patch has erupted into high-power gunfire. As the air clears, two men are known dead. But who was firing, and what else are they protecting? Houseman will find few heroes as he follows a convoluted trail that leads from the marijuana plants to an elusive international operator. By the time the case is closed, "known dead" has taken on a new meaning for him. Ron McLarty's dramatic narration highlights Houseman's increasingly ironic attitude toward life and his profession.

Known Dead

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Donald Harstad

Mystery

RECORDED BOOKS^

What initally looks like a small time midwinter break-in, leads to something much bigger -- a million dollar siege of a floating casino on the frozen Mississippi River. But the temperature is rising and the heat is on Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman...It is 30 below zero in the heartland of Iowa. the Mississippi river is frozen solid and with it, the Colonel Beauregard - a floating casino. Carl Houseman comes upon Fred, a petty crook, one night. A few break-ins have been reported and Fred confesses that he's involved. But now he's worried: he dropped his cousins off to rob the house a few days ago and they never came out ...There are few clues to reveal what happened but Carl realises more than murder is at stake. Soon he and his partner Hester Gorse are fighting for their lives as a million-dollar seige of the casino is threatened.

The Big Thaw

Fourth Estate Paperbacks

CODE 61: maintain radio silence. someone may be listening. Investigating the apparent suicide of a colleague’s niece, Iowa Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman is startled to uncover a group that transforms the dark fantasies of vampire legend into grisly reality: they ritualistically drink small amounts of one another’s blood. As Carl is drawn deeper into this unnerving world, it becomes clear that the dead woman may have been the victim of a twenty-first-century Dracula. The prime suspect, Dan Peale, is a sinister presence within the group--a man some say drinks blood and never, ever dies. It’s an outlandish, heinous theory, but then suspicions are bolstered by rumors of a card-carrying vampire hunter who is also pursuing Peale. All too soon, Houseman finds himself scrambling to track a vampire--before he kills again.

Code Sixty-One

Fourth Estate

Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman returns for the latest instalment in the fast-paced crime series. In a rural part of Nation County, the body of a dead male is discovered in a ditch with one gunshot wound to the head. What appears to be a routine investigation for Carl Houseman and his team turns into a mysterious case, as they learn that there is no way of identifying the dead man: no fingerprint records, no dental records, nothing. This is the cue for an FBI investigator to enter the scene; a new face from the bureau, who suspects it is the body of a Columbian terrorist. Meanwhile, a local meat-packing plant has been accused of passing off contaminated produce. In a town straining under the pressure of mass immigration, the Jewish plant owners suspect foul play. Can there be a connection with the Columbian corpse? Houseman and FBI agent Hester Gorse chase the leads once again in another nail-biting race to discover the truth.

A Long December

Eleven Days is a wry and gripping police thriller. Written by a former deputy sheriff on his vacation, the story covers the solving of a horrific satanic cult murder in farmland Iowa in just -- eleven days. The first Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman knows of the murder case that will take over his life for the next eleven days is when a call comes into his Nation County police department from an unidentified source, believed female, possibly under fifty. No call back number. "Help us," she says, "they're killing everybody!" Spread over two remote farms amidst the cornfields of Iowa, Carl eventually finds four bodies -- one man with his hand chopped off -- but no sign of the female caller. Another body is on his back, legs secured to the bed wtih black cord. He's been castrated and black wax poured into into eyes. His tongue is missing and there's a substance around his mouth which looks like dried super glue. Female FBI Special Agent Hester Gorse comments: "You don't suppose they tried to glue his tongue back on, do you?" Along with Hester, a dyslexic investigator called Theo, a sassy radio dispatcher called Sally, his long-suffering schoolteacher wife and numerous Iowa cops who may never have encountered a murder in their lives, Carl somehow manages to collar the perpetrator of these horrific murders in just Eleven Days.

Eleven Days

Harpercollins Pb