Recruiting Murder by Frank Lazarus @LazarusFrank @SDBookTours #guestpost #blogtour #bookpromo

 

Can two Sleuths put these two puzzles together before college starts in September?

Recruiting Murder

A Brown & McNeil Murder Mystery Book 3

by Frank Lazarus

Genre: Murder Mystery, Crime Thriller

The third installment in the Brown and McNeil Mystery Series

Lenny Goldstein and his company, Future Stars, evaluate high school and collegiate basketball talent and sell their rankings to colleges and NBA teams.

From its humble beginnings in 1975, Future Stars had grown into a behemoth; with fifteen NBA teams and seventy-eight colleges paying subscriptions for his rankings.

Lenny is semi-retired these days, with his son and son-in-law running the business until he gets a call from an old buddy in Newport News, who wants him to come look at a high school kid, Lincoln Anderson, in Emporia, Virginia. He believes this Anderson kid has been overlooked by everyone, including Future Stars.

Concurrently, Lenny gets a call from an old buddy, the iconic coach of Duke University, to see what he knows about the college decision of Tyler Longenecker, Future Star’s #5 ranked high school senior from a premier prep school in the tony Boston suburbs.

All seems to be going on script until graduation, when both Lincoln and Tyler are involved in a death and a roofie rape. Suddenly, Lenny’s getting calls about both kids.

Lincoln’s family is related to James McNeil in Philly, and they call him for help. James and his buddy, Detective Vernon Brown of the Philly PD, jump into the car and head South on I-95.

Can the two Sleuths from The Murder Gambit and The Phenom put these two puzzles together before college starts in September?

Once again, Author Frank Lazarus has produced a gripping, suspenseful story that will keep you off Netflix for a day or two.

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The Phenom

A Brown & McNeil Murder Mystery Book 2

Even before he has played his first game in high school, it would seem nothing can stop Bo Campbell’s meteoric rise to stardom in the basketball world. In Philadelphia, people are already comparing him to his Overbrook High School predecessor, Wilt Chamberlain.

But his dreams are suddenly shattered when he is arrested for the murder of his best friend, Sherman Claxton.

Detective Vernon Brown, and James McNeil, his friend and Bo’s grandfather, search for the truth, but James goes rogue, and soon finds himself in the dangerous underbelly of the Philadelphia drug sub-culture, where the stakes are high and it’s hard to tell who’s friend and who’s foe.

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The Murder Gambit

A Brown & McNeil Murder Mystery Book 1

An unexplained death in a nursing home. A man falls from a balcony. A hit and run in the middle of a city street. An execution in a home. A woman collapses dead after a date.

Five murders. Five methods. Five police jurisdictions.

What’s the connection?

Philadelphia-area detectives are under pressure to solve the murders, while dealing with their own issues.

Speeding like the lead car at Talladega towards a shocking conclusion, is The Murder Gambit a Shakespearean tragedy or a sinister reality?

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Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in THE MURDER GAMBIT?

The first thing about the characters in TMG is there are no MAIN characters or protagonist(s). Five people get murdered in the first five chapters, so they are all dead.

There are the deceased families, two detectives looking into each murder, and assorted suspects in each.

Eventually, Vernon Brown, a Philadelphia Detective investigating the death of Lincoln McNeil, and James McNeil, Lincoln’s son, form a bond and take the lead as the plot is revealing itself. 

I liked this pair so much that my second book, THE PHENOM, featured them again, and the Brown and McNeil Murder Mystery series was born.

How did you come up with the title of your first novel?

The Queen’s Gambit is a hit series on Netflix, and I looked up the definition of GAMBIT. While often used as a strategic move in chess, it was also defined as A maneuver, stratagem, or opening remark, especially one intended to bring about a desired result

I believe this definition applies to the underlying strategy in THE MURDER GAMBIT. 

If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?

Interesting question! I recall writing three different endings for THE PHENOM before settling on the one I used. I still believe I chose the correct one; the other two may have been more predictable. My editor and Significant Other both agreed. 

What book do you think everyone should read?

EXILE, by Richard North Patterson

I learned more about the history of the Arab/Israeli conflict from this book than any other source I have read or seen. 

Frank Lazarus was born and raised in West Philadelphia and attended Overbrook High School, as you may have guessed from his writings.

After graduating high school, Frank spent two years in the U.S. Army during the VietNam War. After his service, he completed his

Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration at St. Joseph’s University, in Philadelphia.

He was in the Financial Services and Life Insurance industry for fifty-three years before he retired at the end of 2021.

Frank has three adult children and five grandchildren.

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