Robert Tell

My latest book is called "Deep Pockets." It is book four of The Harry Grouch Mystery Series . As with The first book, "The Witch of Maple Park," published in 2013, the second in the series, "Nanobe," published in 2014, and "Stradella's Revenge, published in 2016", Deep Pockets tells the further entertaining adventures of the cantankerous private eye, Harry Grouch, and his new bride, Judy Pacas. Each book in the series is independent of the others, but each story develops the character and skills of Harry Grouch in a way sure to please his growing list of fans.

In "Deep Pockets," Harry has to deal with a multinational Mafia situation in which billions of dollars from fraudulent malpractice lawsuits, physician extortion, and corruption among selected lawyers and judges, all lead to some narrow escapes from a violent end for our our favorite detective. But our hero prevails in the end (no surprise, eh?). How he does that is what makes this novel a compelling read.

In "Stradella's Revenge," a series of murders of contemporary classical music composers leave police without a clue as to motive or perp. Are they all linked, or just coincidences? . When someone tries to kill Harry Grouch's friend, Tom Albinoni, a descendant of a famous composer, could there be a relationship to the other murders? Harry and Judy get dragged into exploring the history of a talented but flawed 17th Century Italian baroque composer named Alessandro Stradella who was assassinated in 1682. Why is this happening in the 1990's, and how it is linked to the other composers' deaths? You'll have to read it to find out.

The "Witch of Maple Park," is based on a true story that I find absolutely fascinating. I did tons of research into the historical 1843 case of Polly Bodine, a young woman accused of gruesomely murdering her sister-in-law and niece on Staten Island with an axe. It was a case to rival the famous Lizzie Borden story although it never got the same attention nationally. In New York, however, it dominated the news for several years. Edger Allen Poe wrote an editorial about it, P.T. Barnum, the famous entertainer and con man placed a hideous and bloody axe-wielding wax statue outside the courthouse where Polly Bodine was being tried. He labeled her "The Witch of Staten Island." The media demonized Polly and the public screamed for her blood. Polly Bodine was tried three times and eventually exonerated. The murder was never solved. This case was just crying out for a fictional treatment of the story, so I reinvented it in 1993 Michigan, created another Polly as the prime suspect, and brought the tales of both Polly's, 1843 and 1993, together in what I hope will be a surprising way for my readers. What fun to watch Harry Grouch untangle the mystery!

"Nanobe," also required huge research into the scientific and clinical worlds of microbes responsible for a condition known as Rapidly Progressive Dementia. In case you are wondering, a nanobe is a tiny organism that may or may not be alive but, if living, would be the smallest form of life, 1/10 the size of the smallest known bacteria. So what's a nanobe doing in a Harry Grouch mystery book? Well, terrified neurosurgery patients at Bard Memorial Hospital are dying from Rapidly Progressive Dementia and none of the doctors or nurses know why! Is it a natural attack by a weird new pathogen? A Nanobe? Harry Grouch says "No. It looks like murder in the operating room!" The inspiration for the story came from an actual case at an American hospital in which neurosurgical patients were dying from an initially unknown cause that turned out, after extensive study, to be a nanobe. Harry Grouch is hired by Bard Memorial Hospital to figure it out and, along the way, the reader is introduced to many of the inner workings of a modern hospital.

Watch for a series of short stories in various popular genres, including mystery, sci-fi, historical fiction, medical and hospital tales, etc.

Oh, and by the way, my first novel, "Thirsty Planet," has been translated into Chinese and was recently published in that Country. Working with the Chinese publisher's translater's was an extremely enjoyable and educational experience.