Bøger af Henry Kisor

When the mutilated body of a black man is found hanging from a tree in Mackinac County 275 miles away across the wild Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Porcupine County Sheriff Steve Martinez is dismayed. His bailiwick is ninety-nine per cent white, and the victim, an army veteran, had just been acquitted by an all-white jury in the rape of a white woman. Steve had feared racial repercussions after the verdict and suspects bigotry led to the violent death of Billy Gibbs. But a mystery surrounds the victim himself. How could an ordinary truck mechanic possess such a large bankroll? Why was he so concerned about the well-being of his brand-new, tricked-out pickup truck? Steve is severely shorthanded, but to shine light on Gibbs and to find his killer-or killers-Steve and Sheriff Selena Novikovich, his counterpart in Mackinac County, dig deep into the case. With the help of their deputies, several state troopers, a retired FBI agent who must fend off a hostile CIA, and a military police colonel willing to put his career on the line for the comrade who saved his life in Iraq, the two sheriffs doggedly track the clues across five states. The cops turn up another murder as well as a clutch of fervent neo-Nazis, one of whom is a gorgeous but vicious woman whose sexual proclivities rival those in Fifty Shades of Grey. The Riddle of Billy Gibbs, the sixth in Henry Kisor's Steve Martinez series, vividly explores a troubling side of American life.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 1997. "'Flight of the Gin Fizz' might easily be read as an inspirational tract, but it is not primarily concerned with selling sentimentality to the politically correct. What Kisor allows us to share is a more private drama: one man's almost giddy sense of stepping into another dimension of living, his awareness that he is becoming a hero to himself. He will never be the same, lucky fellow."-Donal Henahan, The New York Times Book ReviewHenry Kisor didn't realize what he was getting himself into when a friend invited him aboard his small plane one afternoon, but as the engine revved and the craft took flight, he found himself exhilarated as never before. Fifty-three years old, Kisor had looked into a mirror and saw staring back "a man who was short, fat, bald, bespectacled, and deaf." He needed to reclaim his zest for life, and he found the answer in learning how to fly. Kisor's dream begins to take shape when he learns that radio communications are not required in most of America's airspace, and that "visual flight rules" are the same for hearing and deaf pilots alike. With the eagerness of newfound youth, he throws himself into his lessons and plans a suitable maiden voyage: a reenactment of Cal Rodgers's 1911 journey from New York to Los Angeles, the first coast-to-coast flight. Along the way, Kisor learns that Rodgers himself suffered from severe hearing loss, which adds an unexpected personal connection to the enterprise.Soon after getting his license, Kisor falls in love with a thirty-six-year-old beauty: a classic Cessna two-seater that he buys and renames "Gin Fizz," in honor of Rodgers's "Vin Fiz" (itself named after a popular soft drink of the day). He then plans out his trip and invites the reader into the cockpit as he takes to the air, dodging storms and greasing landings on a journey across America that recalls the derring-do of the early days of aviation. Landing sixty-five times along a route that takes him from New York to Chicago to Texas to California, Kisor introduces us to the men and women who make up the "brotherhood of aviation"-those who staff the airports, repair the planes, teach student pilots, ferry skydivers (and sometimes jump themselves), and perform aerobatic stunts -and who open a window onto a rich and charming side of American life and lore. But "Flight of the Gin Fizz" is an internal journey, too, as Kisor slowly shakes off the midlife blues that had led him to the Cessna's left seat in the first place. As he proceeds west toward his goal, Kisor learns how to push the envelope of his own capacities, reaching new levels of proficiency and self-reliance, and stretching the limits of his familiar landbound life.For pilots, passengers, and armchair travelers of all stripes, Kisor offers an unforgettable voyage of self discovery and high adventure-and a new appreciation of life's possibilities.

"Hang Fire, the fourth in Henry Kisor's Steve Martinez mystery series, "is taut and clean, tightly plotted and flows flawlessly."-Joseph Heywood, author of the Woods Cop mysteries When a pretty teacher is killed by a muzzle-loading ball during an encampment of historical re-enactors, Sheriff Steve Martinez is troubled by her role-playing "persona" as a frontier prostitute. Sex can be a motive for murder. But the death is ruled an accident. Besides, killing a person with a muzzle-loader takes way too much time and effort. The next few months, however, bring a surprising number of seemingly unrelated muzzle-loading deaths. A statistical anomaly-or something worse?To find the answer, Steve must battle skeptics, a lack of forensic evidence, an ever shrinking budget, and a rocky romance with his longtime love. Hot on the trail in the deep woods, he suddenly discovers that he is his quarry's newest target.

When the mutilated body of a black man is found hanging from a tree in Mackinac County 275 miles away across the wild Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Porcupine County Sheriff Steve Martinez is dismayed. His bailiwick is ninety-nine per cent white, and the victim, an army veteran, had just been acquitted by an all-white jury in the rape of a white woman. Steve had feared racial repercussions after the verdict and suspects bigotry led to the violent death of Billy Gibbs. But a mystery surrounds the victim himself. How could an ordinary truck mechanic possess such a large bankroll? Why was he so concerned about the well-being of his brand-new, tricked-out pickup truck? Steve is severely shorthanded, but to shine light on Gibbs and to find his killer-or killers-Steve and Sheriff Selena Novikovich, his counterpart in Mackinac County, dig deep into the case. With the help of their deputies, several state troopers, a retired FBI agent who must fend off a hostile CIA, and a military police colonel willing to put his career on the line for the comrade who saved his life in Iraq, the two sheriffs doggedly track the clues across five states. The cops turn up another murder as well as a clutch of fervent neo-Nazis, one of whom is a gorgeous but vicious woman whose sexual proclivities rival those in Fifty Shades of Grey. The Riddle of Billy Gibbs, the sixth in Henry Kisor's Steve Martinez series, vividly explores a troubling side of American life.

LARGE PRINT VERSION. Henry Kisor's second mystery featuring Deputy Steve Martinez, A VENTURE INTO MURDER, returns to Porcupine County, where gossip never can be stifled for long. But one secret has been kept quiet for years . . . and those who try to uncover it sometimes wind up dead. Steve had fallen in love with the place after running away from a secret of his own, and had made peace with his past. But the body of a mob hit man is discovered and one of Steve's fellow deputies falls over the long-buried corpse of a man last seen a century before. The two deaths are seemingly unrelated. As Steve probes deeper, he's confronted with problems that could jeopardize everything: his career and his relationship with a widow who has secrets of her own. Steve is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the peace, but he may find that even in the quietest of towns some things are better left buried.

A Venture into Murder, the second whodunit in Henry Kisor's Steve Martinez series, begins in Porcupine County, nestled in the peaceful landscape of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. In it lies a small town where the people all know one another and gossip cannot be silenced for long. But there's one secret that a certain resident has tried to keep quiet for years . . . and those who try to uncover it seem to wind up dead. Deputy Steve Martinez - Lakota Sioux by birth, white Easterner by upbringing - lost his heart to the region after running away from a secret of his own. After finding the love of his life, Steve was able to make peace with his past and take comfort in the land that once had been so good to his ancestors. The peaceful quiet is broken, though, after a mob hit man's corpse washes up on the shore of Lake Superior. Then, during a routine police operation, one of Steve's colleagues literally falls over the long-buried body of one of Porcupine County's missing persons . . . a man who had been last seen alive over one hundred years before. The two deaths are seemingly unrelated at first. Anxious to uncover the truth surrounding these deaths, Steve probes deeper, through shoot-outs and hair-raising flights in the sheriff's small plane, willing to do whatever it takes to keep the peace in the land he loves, but he may find that-even in the quietest of towns -some things are better left buried.

Season's Revenge, the first in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan mystery series featuring Steve Martinez, begins during the weeks before Christmas. Big events are stirring for Lakota-born deputy sheriff Steve Martinez. The normally sleepy town of Porcupine City on the southern shore of Lake Superior is uncharacteristically alive with activity after the body of one of its most respected and powerful residents, Paul Passoja, turns up at a forest campsite, the victim of what appears to be a bear attack. From the moment he arrives on the scene, things just don't add up for Steve. Why would Passoja, a skilled camper and hunter, be careless enough to scatter bacon grease near his tent? Led by curiosity, Steve begins an unofficial investigation of the mishap only to discover that the "random" animal attack might not be so random after all. It seems that quite a few people in town had reason to do in Passoja, but the evidence points to no one in particular. The more Steve investigates, the deeper he sinks into a mystery as old as the town itself. The seemingly peaceful forest haven was once a hotbed of treachery, and ill will only ripens with age. As he gets closer to the murderer, Steve learns the hard way that whoever killed Paul Passoja is more than willing to kill again. But Steve's Native American ancestors never were ones to fold, and neither is he.Season's Revenge was a 2003 "BookSense 76 pick" by independent booksellers around the country.

LARGE PRINT EDITION. Porcupine County, a peaceful little place in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, suddenly becomes the unlikely backdrop for a grisly and high-tech treasure hunt when amorous teen-agers stumble upon a headless corpse. When a second cadaver turns up, Deputy Steve Martinez realizes the bodies are someone's twisted idea of a game. Worse, the election for county sheriff is fast approaching. And Steve's relationship with the beautiful Ginny Fitzgerald becomes strained as he searches for a way to connect with her foster son. CACHE OF CORPSES becomes Steve's toughest investigation yet.

Whether dashing through the Plains, creeping over the Rockies, hurtling across the Great Basin, or threading the Sierra Nevada, the California Zephyr is an earthbound cruise ship bearing as many as 300 passengers, each with a story to tell over the train's 51-hour run from Chicago to San Francisco Bay. Veteran journalist and novelist Henry Kisor climbs aboard and introduces us to the men and women who ride the rails-some out of restlessness, some as a hobby, some seeking love and friendship. There are also the resourceful train crew, who tell tales of "dog-robbing" supplies in the yards, of coping with medical emergencies en route, and of keeping their good humor. Fans of Henry Kisor's mystery novels and other nonfiction books will find him to be an affable traveling companion. As we head westward with him, Zephyr becomes a personal journey into the heart of America. This new 2015 edition brings up to date the original 1994 hardcover, and includes scores of new photographs."An indispensable traveler's aid," the New York Times Book Review called it.

PORCUPINE COUNTY gathers together in an omnibus edition the first three novels in the much-praised Steve Martinez series set in the wilderness of Upper Michigan. The first is about murder by bear, the second about homicide and drugs deep in an underground copper mine, and the third concerns a grisly-and deadly-game played with human bodies. "He really hooks us with his whimsy-free descriptions of life-from wedding dances and town-hall debates to the dead-end future seen in the eyes of a high-school dropout-in this beautiful but economically depressed region," wrote Marilyn Stasio about SEASON'S REVENGE in her New York Times Book Review mystery column. "Steve Martinez is an intriguingly flawed protagonist, and the claustrophobic, everybody-knows-all-my-secrets paranoia of rural, small-town life is unerringly portrayed," Wes Lukowsky said of A VENTURE INTO MURDER in Booklist. Roger Ebert, the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic, wrote of CACHE OF CORPSES: "Add Henry Kisor's deputy sheriff Steve Martinez to the list with Lew Archer and Travis McGee. . . . Kisor's riveting plot weaves together computer gamesmanship, gruesome forensics, local politics, wary romance and inherited Indian instincts into a terrifically readable thriller . . . Couldn't put it down."

LARGE PRINT EDITION. In SEASON'S REVENGE, the first Steve Martinez mystery, the sleepy town of Porcupine City on the southern shore of Lake Superior comes alive when the body of a powerful resident turns up at a forest campsite, victim of what appears to be a bear attack. Things just don't add up for Sheriff Martinez. He soon discovers that the "random" animal attack might not be so random after all, for quite a few people in town had reason to do in Paul Passoja. The more Steve investigates, the deeper he sinks into a mystery as old as the town itself, and he learns the hard way that whoever killed Passoja is more than willing to kill again. But Steve's Native American ancestors never were ones to fold, and neither is he. SEASON'S REVENGE was a 2003 "BookSense 76 pick" by independent booksellers around the country.

Hang Fire, the fourth in Henry Kisor's Steve Martinez mystery series, "is taut and clean, tightly plotted and flows flawlessly."-Joseph Heywood, author of the Woods Cop mysteries When a pretty teacher is killed by a muzzle-loading ball during an encampment of historical re-enactors, Sheriff Steve Martinez is troubled by her role-playing "persona" as a frontier prostitute. Sex can be a motive for murder. But the death is ruled an accident. Besides, killing a person with a muzzle-loader takes way too much time and effort. The next few months, however, bring a surprising number of seemingly unrelated muzzle-loading deaths. A statistical anomaly-or something worse? To find the answer, Steve must battle skeptics, a lack of forensic evidence, an ever shrinking budget, and a rocky romance with his longtime love. Hot on the trail in the deep woods, he suddenly discovers that he is his quarry's newest target.

An updated version of the memoir that changed perceptions of the deaf