Guest Blogger: Greg Messel, Author of San Francisco Nights (Giveaway)

The wife of a wealthy San Francisco shipping magnate leads a secret life but someone is threatening to expose her.  Private eye Sam Slater and his wife and partner, Amelia, meet a mysterious woman in a large red hat during a train trip. The woman approaches him pleading for help because she‘s receiving anonymous notes quoting Bible verses which are becoming more and more ominous with each passing day. Her secrets have been discovered but by whom? What really happens behind closed doors in Room 505 in a swanky downtown hotel?

Sam is willing to take the case but Amelia warns that this woman is nothing but trouble. What does the woman really want? She’s been watching Sam for months and has a scheme to pull him into her world. 

Find out in the latest Sam Slater Mystery “San Francisco Nights” set in the fall of 1959. It’s the seventh book in the series but is a heart pounding stand alone whodunit. 

Watch the book trailer at YouTube.

ORDER YOUR COPY AT AMAZON

THE GLAMOR GIRLS OF THE SKY

There are no more stewardesses. 

The stewardesses on airlines morphed into flight attendants who are both males and females.  In the 21st Century flight attendants are the generally congenial people who walk down the aisle of the cramped plane offering you a small cup of soda, an even smaller bag of peanuts and tell you to stow your bags before take-off. 

The glamor of air travel has gradually disappeared and most passengers who navigate the extensive security at the airport and then squeeze into the seat on the plane, hardly consider it a glamorous experience. 

There is nothing wrong with flight attendants but they are a far cry from the glamor girls of the 1950s and 1960s who were called stewardesses. In Life magazine in 1957, there was a cover picture and featured article called “The Glamor Girls of the Sky.” 

The article details the rigorous training and selection process a woman must endure in the hopes of being chosen by the airline to be a stewardess.

The stewardesses of the 1950s and 1960s were something very close to movie stars and were widely admired by men as sex symbols and also were envied by women of the era.

Since she was a small girl Amelia Ryan Slater wanted to be a stewardess. As 1959 comes to a close in my new book San Francisco Nights, Amelia is no longer a stewardess and is a full time partner to her husband Sam in the private eye business. Why? Simple because she got married. The airlines want their “glamor girls” to be young and single.

I found an old job application for stewardesses from the 1950s. The requirements show how far we have come as a society and specifically how far women have come in their quest for equality in the work place.

Here is a laundry list of the requirements for stewardesses. They are:

Appearance: Height and weight proportionate
Attractive ("just below Hollywood") Standards
Gender: Female
Martial Status: Single, not divorced, separated or widowed.
Race: White
Age: 21 to 26 years old
Education: Registered nurse or two years of college
Height: Between 5 feet, 2 inches and 5 feet, 6 inches
Weight: 135 pounds maximum

I'm not sure how a woman is supposed to react to the qualification--"attractive, just below Hollywood standards." Is it a compliment or an insult to be told that you are "just below Hollywood standards?" It's astounding to think of a job application which would list the "qualifications" as "white, single, female, a range for height and of course, a weight restriction." The weight restriction was a sliding scale. For instance, the fictional character, Amelia Ryan is 5 feet four inches which means she could only weigh 125 pounds. If a stewardess shows up for a flight above weight, she is grounded.

The airlines wanted pretty young, single women to provide eye candy for their well-heeled passengers who flew--mostly affluent businessmen. Once a woman was over 26 or was married she was asked to resign.

That of course changed.

On February 11, 1958, Ruth Carol Taylor was hired by Mohawk Airlines and became the first African-American flight attendant in the United States. Ironically, despite her historic breaking of the racial restriction, Ruth's career ended just six months later due to another discriminatory barrier: she married and was dismissed by the airline. Incidentally, only stewardesses had the age restriction and the marriage ban. No other airline employees and especially pilots, were under the same type of requirements.

In my novel, stewardess Amelia Ryan falls in love with Sam Slater. They want to get married. But Amelia also loves her job. She has to choose between marriage and continuing as a stewardess. It was a great dilemma for her.

The glamorous world of stewardesses was one of the only avenues open to women in the 1950s to "see the world" and have a career. But it came at a great price. Sam and Amelia are secretly married in Fog City Strangler. They keep their union a secret so she can continue to work for the airline. 

In an earlier book in the mystery series--San Francisco Secrets--another challenge rears its head for Amelia--sexual harassment.  

A womanizing pilot, Mark Silver, is essentially Amelia’s boss and aggressively pursues her with unwanted sexual advances. There was no such term as “sexual harassment” in the 1950s.  As she tried to fight off  Capt. Silver, Amelia ponders the avenues she has to protect herself. There are basically none. 

Amelia wonders if she goes to the airline to complain about Silver if it will cause her problems, not the pilot. She fears that when she complains about the “sexual harassment,” the airline will just say that “boys will be boys.”  Stewardesses routinely had to evade grabby male passengers and the unwanted advances of pilots. 

Sam is upset by the groping of Amelia and complains about her work environment saying that if anyone is attracted to my girlfriend they can “take a sample.”

It would be several years before the stewardesses unionized and stood up to the airline. There was a series of lawsuits that knocked down the discriminatory barriers for women. 

Greg Messel has spent most of his adult life interested in writing, including a career in the newspaper business. He won a Wyoming Press Association Award as a columnist and has contributed articles to various magazines. Greg lives in Edmonds, Washington on Puget Sound with his wife Jean DeFond.

Greg has written ten novels. His latest is "San Francisco Nights" which is the seventh in a series of mysteries set in 1959 San Francisco. "Shadows In The Fog," "Fog City Strangler," "San Francisco Secrets," "Deadly Plunge" are sequels to the first book in the series "Last of the Seals." His other three novels are "Sunbreaks," "Expiation" and "The Illusion of Certainty." For a more detailed summary of Greg's novels go to www.gregmessel.com 

Greg is currently working on his eleventh novel "Dreams That Never Were" which is not part of the mystery series.

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK

Greg Messel is giving away three of his books!!

Terms & Conditions:

• By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
• Winners will be chosen via Rafflecopter.
• This giveaway ends midnight September 29.
• Winner will be contacted via email on September 30.
• Winner has 48 hours to reply.

Good luck everyone!

ENTER TO WIN!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Video Trailer Reveal and Giveaway: Fog City Strangler by Greg Messel

As 1958 nears an end San Francisco is being terrorized by a man who calls himself the “Fog City Strangler,” who preys on pretty young blonde women. The strangler announces each murder by sending a note and piece of cloth from the victim’s dresses to the local newspapers.

Private eye Sam Slater is worried that the Fog City Strangler may be eyeing his beautiful blonde wife, stewardess Amelia Ryan. Sam’s angst mounts as the strangler continues to claim more victims. His anxiety is further fueled when TWA launches an advertising campaign with Amelia’s picture on a series of billboards plastered all over the city. Sam fears the billboards may attract too much attention--the wrong kind of attention.

Meanwhile, Sam and Amelia are hired to try to find the missing daughter of a wealthy dowager who fears she has lost her only child. The missing woman went for a walk with her dog on Stinson Beach, near San Francisco, and seemingly vanished into thin air. The woman’s husband arrived at their beach house and found the dog running loose but there was no trace of his wife. The police are stumped in their investigation.

As Sam and Amelia look into the disappearance of the woman on the beach they discover that nothing is as it seems at first glance. On a stormy night a shadowy figure sets fire to the beach house where the couple is staying--hoping to stop their investigation.

Fog City Strangler is a stand-alone thriller but is part of the Sam Slater Mystery Series--Last of the Seals, Deadly Plunge and San Francisco Secrets.

Purchase your copy:

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE

Discuss this book in our PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads by clicking HERE.

Greg Messel is giving away a 3 book set of his Sam Slater Mystery Series (Last of the Seals, Deadly Plunge and San Francisco Secrets AND a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

• By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
• One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive the 3 book set and $25 Amazon Gift Card.
• This giveaway begins February 3 and ends on March 28.
• Winner will be contacted via email on Monday, March 31, 2014.
• Winner has 48 hours to reply.

Good luck everyone!

ENTER TO WIN!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Greg Messel grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and now lives in Edmonds, Washington on the Puget Sound with his wife, Carol. Fog City Strangler is his seventh novel and is the fourth in a new series of Sam Slater mystery novels. Greg has lived in Oregon, Washington, California, Wyoming and Utah and has always loved writing, including stints as a reporter, columnist and news editor for a daily newspaper.

Follow news about Messel’s writings and books at www.gregmessel.com.

Book Review: Deadly Plunge by Greg Messel

Sam Slater and Amelia Ryan are back in this surprising sequel to Last of the Seals. 

Former San Francisco Seals player, Sam Slater, is still adjusting to life post-baseball when he's hired to find out why wealthy, politically active Arthur Bolender jumped to his death from the Golden Gate Bridge. All who knew him insist Arthur would never commit suicide, including his much younger, sexy socialite wife, Maggie.

The key to the mystery appears to be an old Victorian-style home that the Bolenders owned, but Maggie knew nothing about. As Sam and his TWA stewardess girlfriend Amelia follow the clues, they discover a plot more frightening than they could ever imagine. As they close in, the people with the most to lose are determined to put a stop to Sam's investigation.

Like its predecessor, Deadly Plunge is a mix of mystery, murder, and history. Messel uses his first-hand knowledge of San Francisco and late 1950s American culture, to create a novel that moves along at a steady pace. Filled with historical photos and numerous references to pop culture icon, Elvis, Messel does a fine job of bringing the era in which Sam and Amelia work and play to life. The romance between these two characters is subtle enough that it doesn't take away from the mystery, but it does share some of the limelight. It's also a sweet romance. While the passion is increasing as Sam and Amelia get to know each other, there isn't any hanky panky.

While it's hard not to like Sam and Amelia, I still feel like I don't know them very well. As with the first book, Deadly Plunge is very plot-driven. You're not diving into these characters heads to figure out what makes them tick. The writing style isn't my favorite. It's much more telling than showing, even when historical details are shared that paint a great picture for the reader. The third person narrator is so pushy that he tells you what the historical places mentioned as part of the storyline are used for in present day. That can pull a reader out of the story. Perhaps this style comes from Messel's years as a reporter, columnist and news editor for a daily newspaper. I could see how it would work in journalism, but it doesn't work for me in fiction.

I was thrilled, however, to see the return of Janet, Sam's secretary and the Steeles. I love all of them, so it was a delight to know they weren't one-book characters. I hope we see them again in the next book. Janet seems underutilized to me, so I would like to see her play a more significant role as the series moves forward.

Finally, the plot had what I felt was a flaw. I don't want to give too much away, but in a nutshell, the fact that Sam's buddy Vince, who is a cop, continued to take a backseat in the investigation even when it appeared to have international implications, didn't seem realistic to me. I would think he would be getting the more than decade-old CIA involved pronto. And even if Vince didn't act, Sam must have realized he was in over his head and had to contact the proper authorities. I am willing to be proved wrong on this point, but it bothered me the entire time I read the book.

The majority of the reviews for both books have been fabulous, so this murder mystery definitely has appeal for many. Feel free to check out some of the reviews on Amazon and decide if you want to give Deadly Plunge a try.

Paperback: 420 pages
Publisher: Sunbreaks Publishing (October 8, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0985485922
ISBN-13: 978-0985485924

I received a free copy of this book from the author through Pump Up Your Book. This review contains my honest opinions, for which I have not been compensated in any way.

Book Review: Last of the Seals by Greg Messel

A tale of mystery, romance, and baseball comes to you from the pen of Greg Messel.

It's 1957. Sam Slater is a minor league baseball player for the San Francisco Seals. But his time as a baseball player is almost done. This is the Seals' last season before San Francisco becomes a major league town and welcomes the Giants.

The plan is for Sam to join his friend Jimmy's private detective agency. When Jimmy is murdered, Sam must figure out why. Along the way, he meets beautiful TWA stewardess, Amelia Ryan. Together they work to solve the mystery behind Jimmy's death. The discovery of a young woman's body on the beach brings new dangers, along with new twists and turns.

In Last of the Seals, author Greg Messel uses historical photos to complement an engaging story filled with mystery, romance, and baseball. Already needing to cope with the end of his baseball career, Sam must figure out why Jimmy was murdered. He has no experience as a private investigator, and was planning on having Jimmy's help to learn the ropes. Now, he's forced to go it alone.

Then walks in Amelia Ryan. An Elvis-obsessed TWA stewardess. A beautiful bombshell, she immediately catches Sam's eye, and soon their romance is in full swing. But Amelia is more than a pretty face. She has a knack for getting information from people.

In addition to the two main characters, Sam's cop buddy Vince, Amelia's family, the Steeles, who hire Sam to locate their missing daughter, Jimmy's widow and young son, and Jimmy's assistant Janet, all blend into the storyline to create a cast of people you want to know better.

Messel is obviously knowledgeable about the time period, the area in which the book is set, and baseball, which is definitely a strength in Last of the Seals. This is a very plot-driven novel, so character-driven readers might be at a disadvantage. While the characters are well-developed, you really don't get inside their heads as much as you would if the characters propelled the story along.

There are a couple of things that nagged me. The first is that the investigation into Jimmy's murder doesn't seem to be as much of a focus for Sam as I thought it would be. Granted, when it happens, he's still playing for the Seals, so the amount of time he can dedicate to the investigation is limited, but he doesn't seem passionate about figuring out what happened to his best friend. When I consider other murder mysteries where a best friend investigates a murder, they are driven to uncover what happened. Sam takes on an additional case while he's tracking down Jimmy's murderer. And, his blossoming relationship with Amelia proves to be a distraction. It gave me the feeling that solving Jimmy's murder was just one line item on Sam's to-do list instead of seeing Sam as a hurting best friend who needs to know why anyone would kill Jimmy.

The other thing I found odd about how the storyline evolved was that in some ways this felt more like a cozy mystery than a detective novel. Maybe I've watched too much Magnum P.I. and Rockford Files, but the main character is always in the middle of catching the bad guy. In Last of the Seals, Sam figures out who killed Jimmy, but then takes off with Amelia to stay out of danger. Even elderly Mrs. Fletcher from Murder, She Wrote was in the middle of the melee most of the time. In the secondary investigation Sam was more hands-on, so that helped round out the plot.

Overall, I enjoyed Last of the Seals, and look forward to reviewing Deadly Plunge, the second Sam Slater novel, later in the month.

PURCHASE YOUR COPY OF LAST OF THE SEALS AT:

AMAZON
BARNES AND NOBLE

I received a free paperback copy of this book from the author through Pump Up Your Book. This review contains my honest opinions, for which I have not been compensated in any way.

Recent Books Added to My TBR Pile

Is it possible to have too many books? If it is, I think I'm going for a world record. I've recently added these books to my TBR Pile:


Unexpected Christmas Hero by Kathi Macias,

American Patriots: Answering the Call to Freedom by Rick Santorum,

Deadly Plunge by Greg Messel,

A Texan's Choice by Shelley Gray,

Beside Two Rivers by Rita Gerlach,

The Proxy Assassin by John Knoerle.

At a recent writers conference, I purchased some books for myself and some for the girls:

The Treasure Chest: Prince of Air by Ann Hood. She was the afternoon keynote speaker.

Escaping into the Night by D. Dina Friedman,

Borrowed Names by Jeannine Atkins,

Jo's Girls edited by Christian McEwen,

Confectionately Yours: Save the Cupcake by Lisa Papademetriou.

What are some recent additions to your TBR Pile?

Interview with Greg Messel, Author of The Last of the Seals

Greg Messel has written four novels and three unpublished memoirs. He published his premiere novel “Sunbreaks” in 2009, followed by “Expiation” in 2010 and “The Illusion of Certainty” in 2011. “Last of the Seals” is the first in a series of mysteries which are set in 1957 San Francisco. The second book in the series “Deadly Plunge’ will be published around Christmas of 2012. Greg grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and has had a newspaper career as a columnist, sportswriter and news editor. He won a Wyoming Press Association Award as a columnist while working for a daily newspaper in Wyoming. Greg also spent many years in the corporate world as a Financial Manager. He now devotes his energies to writing at his home in Edmonds, Washington on the Puget Sound just north of Seattle, where he lives with his wife, Carol.

To get your paperback copy of LAST OF THE SEALS by Greg Messel: http://www.amazon.com/Last-Seals-Greg-Messel/dp/0985485906

To get your e-copy of LAST OF THE SEAL by Greg Messel at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Last-of-the-Seals-ebook/dp/B0083WCHOO

To view all books by Greg Messel: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=Greg%20Messel

To learn more about Greg, go to his website: www.gregmessel.com

Visit Greg Messel on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gregmessel

Like Greg Messel on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greg.messel

What was the experience like writing Last of the Seals?

It was great fun. I've never written a mystery. It was really challenging and a new experience. I was pleased with the result and it seems that readers and reviewers have reacted very favorably to it. I love the characters and the time period and place. San Francisco in 1958 in a very exciting and interesting place. Readers seem to really like the nostalgic aspect of the story.

How did you come up with the title?

The San Francisco Seals were a Pacific Coast League team that was displaced after the 1957 season. The Seals were just one level below the big leagues. The end of the Seals came when the major league Giants moved from New York for the 1958 season. The time period of the story is 1957 as the Seals and the main character Sam Slater play their final games in San Francisco. Sam is at the end of his career. In the fall of 1957 it was the "last of the Seals" but in a way Sam was the 'last of the Seals."

Can you tell us more about your main character, Sam Slater?

As a teenager, Sam was a baseball phenom and was signed by the Boston Red Sox right out of high school. But Sam's career is interrupted by World War II and he is part of the landing force at Omaha Beach on D Day. Sam also fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Sam's baseball abilities are never quite the same after the war. As his baseball career is ending in 1957 he plans to join the private detective agency of his best friend Jimmy Jankow. But Jimmy is suddenly murdered and Sam is thrust into a series of mysteries which he feels ill prepared to cope with. It is then that he meet Amelia Ryan who changes his life.

What are his strengths and what are his weaknesses?

Sam is a very admirable character and is the kind of guy who is admired by men and loved by women. He is very brave and loyal. Sam is often reminded by his friends and Amelia that he doesn't need to take on all of this problems alone. Sam has had a lot of hard knocks and has become something of a loner. Amelia is always reminding him to let others help him with his challenges.

What about Amelia Ryan? Can you tell us more about her?

Amelia is a beautiful 25 year old TWA stewardess. Amelia has always had a sense of adventure and wants to experience as much of the world as possible before she settles down to become a 1950s housewife. Amelia is often told that she looks like Grace Kelly. It is her classic beauty that enchants Sam Slater from the first moment he meets her. Amelia has had many pursuers over the years and is constantly fighting off grabby passengers at work. However, when she meets Sam she falls deeply in love with him. She also loves helping him solve the mysteries he faces as a private eye.

Are there any supporting characters we need to know about?

Sam's friend and old Army buddy is Vince Marino is a street-tough San Francisco Police Detective. Vince helps Sam and advises him as he tries to solve the mysteries he encounters. There is also the Ryan family, Amelia's large Irish Catholic clan, who is very interested in her new romance. The men in the Ryan family are big baseball fans and are star struck by Sam and his baseball stories.

Can you open to page 25 and tell us what’s happening?

This episode occurs just before Jimmy's death. It is the last time the three friends are together before the murder. The three Army buddies meet for dinner and then are going to some boxing matches together. It reveals much about their relationship before everything suddenly changes.

What about page 65?

Sam is adjusting to his new role as a private eye. He goes into the office and meets with his secretary Janet. Someone ransacked the office while they were at Jimmy's funeral. Sam and Janet are puzzled as to why someone would tear their office apart. What were they looking for?

Now that Last of the Seals has been published, what’s your next project?

I've finished writing the second book in the series as a sequel to "Last of the Seals." It is called "Deadly Plunge" and takes place in 1958. Sam and Amelia encounter a rich, seductive socialite who wonders why her husband suddenly jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. There's also a mysterious house where shadowy characters come and go. "Deadly Plunge" will be out around Christmas. I'm also beginning work on the third book in the series "San Francisco Secrets."

Do you have anything you’d like to tell our readers?

I hope you will give "Last of the Seals" a try. Some readers wonder if it's a baseball book or is it a romance or is it a mystery? It's all three and I think it should appeal to a wide range of readers.

Book Spotlight: Last of the Seals by Greg Messel

The year is 1957 in San Francisco. Sam Slater is a lifetime minor league baseball player for the San Francisco Seals. The Seals have just one more season left as San Francisco is about to become a major league city. The Giants are coming to town in 1958 and the Seals will be displaced. Sam has come to the end of his baseball career and is going to join the private detective agency of his best friend. When his friend is brutally murdered, Sam must go it alone and try to find out why. Along the way he is swept off of his feet by a beautiful Elvis-obsessed TWA stewardess named Amelia Ryan. Sam and Amelia try to unravel the mystery together. Sam’s best friend, Jimmy inadvertently saw something he shouldn’t have. Sam and Amelia have pictures in their possession that have crime families in San Francisco and Chicago very worried. Then a young woman Sam has been searching for is found dead on the beach. Suddenly, Sam and Amelia find themselves in danger. On dark and foggy San Francisco nights, trouble is lurking just around the next corner.

Read an excerpt!

First Chapter:

CHAPTER 1

EMBARCADERO STABBING

September 4, 1957

______________________________________________________________________

Those who loved Jimmy Jankow would say he had a “big personality.” The people who didn’t like Jimmy would say he was brash and arrogant. His “personality” was an endearing quality to his friends and an obnoxious trait to those who didn’t count themselves as his friend. Jimmy always seemed very confident in his actions.

His best friends, Sam Slater and Vince Marino, tended to follow Jimmy’s lead. Sam was a baseball player for the Seals and Vince was a veteran San Francisco cop.

Jimmy had always attracted a lot of attention from the ladies. With his wavy blonde hair, blue eyes and muscular build, he could prove to be irresistible. It was just after the war that Sam declared that Jimmy had become “domesticated.”

That’s when Jimmy fell under the spell of Rita Angelos, the eye-popping daughter of Greek immigrants. She had thick long black hair, large brown eyes, and just as “big” of a personality as Jimmy.

The Embarcadero is the main roadway which skirts along the edge of San Francisco Bay. It is lined with piers and is a major area for shipping. Embarcadero means “the place to embark.” It has certainly filled that function in San Francisco.

After the completion of the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge around 1936, there was a rapid decline in ferry traffic. The famed Ferry Building and the neighborhood began to deteriorate.

However, during World War II, San Francisco’s waterfront became a military logistics center as troops, equipment and supplies left the Port in support of the Pacific theater.  San Francisco began growing in leaps and bounds. Almost every pier and wharf was involved in military activities, with troop ships and naval vessels tied up all along the Embarcadero.

Jimmy left in 1943 for England to fight in Europe in the middle of World War II. While in England, he had met two San Francisco natives, Sam and Vince, who became his best friends.

Now in 1957, Jimmy was a successful private investigator. As Sam’s baseball career was winding down, Jimmy was planning to take him on as a full partner.  Jimmy had been busy preparing an office space for Sam. A carpenter had just finished the remodeling job and Jimmy couldn’t wait to show it to Sam. The frosted door pane on the new office even had been painted with the name “Sam Slater.”

Jimmy pulled his 1955 Mercury coupe to the curb near Pier 23 on the Embarcadero.

It was a flashy car and it perfectly fit Jimmy’s personality. The two-toned Merc was turquoise and white and had chrome everywhere.

A beautiful late summer day was ending in San Francisco as Jimmy scooped a folder of pictures off of the front seat of the Merc. He had to deliver the end product to his client, who was very paranoid about secrecy.

Fred Langenfeld had grown very suspicious of his wife’s activities throughout the summer. The more Jimmy got to know Langenfeld, the more he suspected that he was suspicious of everyone’s activities.

Earlier in the decade, Langenfeld had been a law clerk in Washington D.C., where he was involved in the McCarthy hearings and the anti-communist scare. Jimmy had met Langenfeld through a law firm that had, on occasion, used his private investigation skills.

Langenfeld hired Jimmy to follow his wife and find out where she spent her afternoons. Jimmy had been doing this for most of August. She was not hard to catch. Langenfeld had good reason to be paranoid.

Now Jimmy was going to deliver a series of photos to confirm all of Langenfeld’s worst fears.  Jimmy had snapped the photos at lunch spots throughout the city, a motel,  and at Golden Gate Park, where he found Mrs. Langenfeld crawling all over a young guy who had been her constant companion. Jimmy had been tailing them and it was easy pickings.

Particularly damning was a series of pictures of Mrs. Langenfeld publicly displaying her intense passion for her new lover while they sat on a park bench near a pond in the park.

Jimmy felt this was like shooting fish in a barrel. It didn’t tax his investigative skills. Mrs. Langenfeld turned out to be the most indiscreet woman in San Francisco. All you needed was a camera.

Sneaking around spying on someone’s spouse wasn’t the most pleasant part of his job, however, it paid well.

The difficult part of following someone’s unfaithful husband or wife was delivering the bad news to the suspicious spouse. Jimmy always thought that you shouldn’t ask a question if you’re not prepared to hear the answer.

Langenfeld wanted Jimmy to meet him on his boat, which was docked at Pier 23 to ensure privacy. Jimmy wanted to get this over with, collect his pay, and then get home to his wife, son, and new baby. As Jimmy walked down the pier, he looked carefully in the dusky light for the docking location of the “Frisco Fred.”

What a jerk!

Who names their boat “Frisco Fred?” Not a native San Franciscan, that’s for sure. One way to really piss off a San Franciscan, is to call their beloved city “Frisco.”

As Jimmy walked slowly down the marina dock looking for the boat, he sensed someone coming up quickly behind him. He spun around to see a large, beefy man with his hat pulled down just above his eyebrows, concealing his face.

Jimmy immediately sensed the threat and his defenses went on full alert. He thought the man was charging at him for a physical assault, but the thug stopped short and then got in Jimmy’s face.

“I’m gonna need those pictures,” he snarled.

“Who the hell are you?”

“Someone you don’t want to tell no!” he growled and then repeated his warning. “Hand them over.”

“Look, I don’t want any trouble pal but there’s no way…”  Jimmy never finished the sentence. In a split second, the burly man stuck a knife into Jimmy’s chest.

Jimmy staggered backwards, completely shocked at the sudden assault. He dropped the pictures and fell onto the dock gasping for air and instinctively trying to remove the knife.

The assailant took his foot and rolled the mortally wounded Jimmy off the edge of the pier and into the water. The man looked around to see if the splash had attracted any attention. It had not.

He then reached down and grabbed Jimmy’s pictures with his gloved hand and quickly disappeared into a dark blue Buick that was waiting at the curb.

Title: Last of the Seals
Author: Greg Messel
Paperback: 392 pages
Genre: Mystery/Romance
Publisher: Sunbreaks Publishing (April 23, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN – 0985485906
ISBN – 978-0985485900

Available in paperback and electronic formats from Amazon!

Greg Messel has written four novels and three unpublished memoirs. He published his premiere novel “Sunbreaks” in 2009, followed by “Expiation” in 2010 and “The Illusion of Certainty” in 2011. “Last of the Seals” is the first in a series of mysteries which are set in 1957 San Francisco. The second book in the series “Deadly Plunge’ will be published around Christmas of 2012. Greg grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and has had a newspaper career as a columnist, sportswriter and news editor. He won a Wyoming Press Association Award as a columnist while working for a daily newspaper in Wyoming. Greg also spent many years in the corporate world as a Financial Manager. He now devotes his energies to writing at his home in Edmonds, Washington on the Puget Sound just north of Seattle, where he lives with his wife, Carol.

To learn more about Greg, go to his website: www.gregmessel.com 

Visit Greg Messel on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gregmessel 

Like Greg Messel on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greg.messel