Santa Murders - Paperback

by Bob Moats (Author)

That Jolly old head elf from the North Pole is getting ready to be a naughty boy. He has murder on his mind. Luckily it's not the real Santa Claus, but a person with a motive to murder. Las Vegas Homicide Detective Deacon DeAngelo goes after a street preacher who loves to play Santa for the homeless shelters. Evidence ties this Santa to the murder of a mob figure and now Will Trapper is called on to prove his Santa friend didn't do it. Trapper manages to talk Jim Richards into helping to find the real killer while they hide the fake Santa which doesn't make Deacon happy. He threatens them to find the real killer or go to jail for obstruction of justice. It's like the twelve days of Christmas around the preacher's church with police, mob figures, a fortune in hidden money and one scheming black widow female who traps the Santa into marriage to get at his wealth since he owns a choice property that every one wants for building casinos on. It's a Vegas Christmas in this 31st book of the Jim Richards series.

Author Biography

Detroit area resident, Bob Moats, has been writing short stories and plays for as long as he can remember. He has lost most of his original stories, typed or handwritten, in the numerous moves he has made from his hometown of Fraser, Michigan to Northern Michigan, to Las Vegas and back to Fraser, where he now lives. Moats became one of the causalities of unemployment in 2009, and had time on his hands to finally pursue a life long dream of writing a full blown crime novel. Thus was born the first book, "Classmate Murders". What followed was a series of books starting with "The Classmate Murders" which introduces the main character, Jim Richards, who has to admit he has become a senior citizen, reluctantly. Richards, one day, receives an email from a childhood sweetheart asking for his help, but by the time he reaches her, she has been murdered. His life turns around and he is pulled into numerous murders of women from his high school who he hasn't seen in forty years. Along with a friend of his, Buck, a big, mustached biker, they go off to track down the killer before he can get to one former classmate, Penny Wickens, a TV talk show host who Jim has just fallen for while protecting her. The killer is also murdering the women right out from under police protection, driving homicide detective Will Trapper crazy, and he slowly depends on Jim to help. There's humor, suspense, wild chases across suburban Detroit with cops, classic cars and motorcycle clubs; murder, mayhem, a good amount of romance and a twist ending.