Peter MacAlister is a loner, 35 in ’85, which any Boomer knows was about ten minutes ago yesterday. He’s a reporter by day, covers the grimy streets of his small city on New England’s South Coast. On the side he partners with his pal, oddball aging attorney Mory Wilbur, as they combine their unique talents to help folks with nowhere else to turn.
Wisecracking Peter’s adventure begins with “Edie, A Peter MacAlister Mystery.” Edie mysteriously seeks his help recovering a lost inheritance. Hop into Peter’s old beater with him and Edie as they steer off into an adventure they never expected, toward a fate they couldn’t imagine. Trigger-happy, drug-peddling gang members, nouveau mobsters, and holed up society dropouts highlight the characters they contend with on their mission to find and claim what’s rightfully hers. And, of course, his piece of the pie.
Find the Peter MacAlister Mystery Collection here.
“Monique, A Peter MacAlister Mystery,” finds our protagonist heading north to Manchester, New Hampshire, where he has gone to the aid of a former flame to help in the search of her missing brother, Charlie. Peter remembers Charlie, a pot-smoking hippie behind in the times.
The police have nothing, yet, but time is running out. Monique remembers those years ago when Peter, used his unique sense of deduction to help the police locate a missing girl. She needs him to do it again. She just drove a hundred miles through a blinding snowstorm to find him. She needs him to find her beloved Charlie, before he’s gone for good.
A survivalist club. A biker bar called Axe Max. A yuppie bar called Rue Appetit. A girlfriend called Pudding. A kinky party crowd. Cops, reporters, and a social-climbing nemesis. Oh, and a brutal murder. Just some of what Peter encounters as he dedicates himself to finding Monique’s brother, who has disappeared in the middle of New Hampshire.
Malcomb Whitney is the esteemed editor of the Fall River Gazette, the flagship newspaper of Massachusetts’ South Coast. He had pulled reporter Peter MacAlister out of a funk six years before, gave him a job covering the grimier streets of the city, then sat back and watched him immerse into stories most people didn’t know existed. Now Malcomb needs Peter’s help. Because that’s what Peter does – help people who can’t help themselves.
More precisely, Malcomb’s sister-in-law Margot Constant needs Peter’s help. That is, Margot and her family’s trust, which Malcomb had married into. It appears she and her boyfriend, Chas, may have been hoodwinked by developers seeking investors for their zen community. Now Malcomb’s mother-in-law, Katherine, the matriarch of the Marple Family Trust, wants Peter to get her family’s million dollars back. And one does not say no to Katherine Marple Constant.
Soon, Peter heads off to Manchester, Vermont, the setting of “Margo, A Peter MacAlister Mystery,” the third novel in the New England based series. Sets off to a place he’s never been, into a world the likes of which he’s never known – financial hoods, scheming partners, a disco-dancing architect named Elon, and mountain of an enforcer named Edgar, eye-opening town elders, and one most inconvenient murder. His mission – recover a million bucks. Anything over that he gets to stick into his own pocket. At least, that’s the plan.
Tag along with wise-cracking reporter Peter MacAlister as he takes on crisis cases all over New England in this somewhat dark, moody series with a decidedly noir tilt.
And take a look at Scott C. Smith’s Amazon author page. He is also the author of the farcical, warm action series THE LGBT SUPERHEROES! Books I-III, which celebrates diversity with stories about a fearsome foursome of queer vigilantes who take on the criminal and political chaos that threatens their beloved city. They team up with a hot reporter duo that has been chasing down conspiracies to the point where their paths cross to jointly confront the crises. The lead reporter? Yup, one Peter MacAlister, nearly 30 years later, who at 63 finally found the love of his life. Action, drama, humor, romance – all the makings of a warm, entertaining series that reads like a movie on the page.