with Brian O'Brien
We are delighted to welcome back author Brian O'Brien to Omnimystery News.
Brian visited with us last Friday with an excerpt from his new series thriller Detective Riley's First Case (Booklocker.com; July 2013 hardcover and ebook formats) and we asked him to return to tell us more about the book from his perspective as its author.
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Photo provided courtesy of
Brian O'Brien
My name is Brian O'Brien and I've just published the first novel in what I hope will be a long series — Detective Riley's First Case.
The United States today is at war with terrorists, whether we like it or not, and cops are in the front line of that war.
He didn't ask for the job, but Detective Riley becomes a point man in that war. In each of the books, Riley is sent by the White House to defeat a terrorist plan.
Who is Detective Riley?
When the first book opens he is a homicide detective in Baltimore, a big, burly, hard-drinking ex-paratrooper, who's already been demoted for taking too many reckless chances.
All Riley wants is to save enough money to buy a beach house, a row-house at Sea Colony, in Delaware, on the Delmarva Peninsula, that he can rent out in the summer for enough to pay the mortgage on the beach house and maybe help pay the rent on his small row house facing on the Baltimore Harbor, and enjoy it in the winter, when the beaches are deserted, with his black lab, Irish.
Riley is single, and Irish is all the family he has. His wife left him without giving a reason and sent divorce papers several years afterward.
Early in the first book Riley is driving home after work to his row house, thinking about the beach house and looking forward to what he knows will be a frantic greeting from Irish, when the police radio in the ancient, dirty gray police Dodge squawks at him.
The dispatcher gives a laconic report of a gunman taking a woman hostage and forcing her into a house, and gives the address.
Riley is just passing the address.
He pulls the Dodge to the curb and advises the dispatcher to advise all officers that he, Riley was on the scene and to be sure and challenge before firing, repeat, challenge before firing.
Then he gets out and begins the adventure that will end his career as a homicide detective and win him the undying admiration of the US Vice President.
The Vice President, whose father was a cop, admires cops, and particularly brave cops.
Which is why, when the President is off playing war games and unreachable, and the Vice President is told that it is more than likely that terrorists have hidden a nuclear bomb in Manhattan. He doesn't dare start an official search, because that would almost certainly touch off a panic.
Instead, he remembers what his father always told him, that "there's nothing smarter than a smart cop" and sends Riley, the bravest, smartest cop he knows to find the bomb.
Riley meanwhile, Just forced into early retirement for taking too many chances, and wondering how he can use his brand-new P.I. license to pad out his tiny pension, gets handed his first case, the biggest case of his life.
Not only the biggest but the most terrifying -- as well as baffling.
The fact is that Riley is totally clueless as to where to begin the search.
Fortunately the Vice President also sends Secret Service Agent Casey, a stunning blonde, along as Riley's bodyguard, although at 6' 3" and 240 pounds, Riley doesn't look like the kind of guy who'd need a bodyguard. Since they'd be undercover, her role is to act as his pretend wife.
It was a good choice, because by the time their plane landed in New York, Casey had a plan underway so clever you hope our government considers if we ever face the real thing. (Actually, in all the books, it is Casey who often solves the problem, although it is always Riley, despite his protests, who gets the credit.)
And it is Casey who insists on bringing Irish to New York to round out the "family", which is a good thing, because they need all the help they can get when trouble strikes and the shooting starts.
If you have any questions you'd like to ask me about Detective Riley's First Casevisit my blog and I'll try and respond to you promptly.
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Brian O'Brien has never been a sworn officer but he's been a police reporter, law enforcement official and lawyer long enough to know that cops are different.
For more information about the author and the book, visit his website/blog at Detective Riley's First Case.
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Detective Riley's First Case
Brian O'Brien
A Detective Riley Mystery
The President is unreachable when the Vice President learns that terrorists have hidden a nuclear bomb in Manhattan. An official search could cause a deadly panic so he remembers his father's advice: "There's nothing smarter than a smart cop!" He sends the best cop he knows — reckless, hard-drinking ex-cop Riley, who is clueless but the beautiful Secret Service agent sent along as his bodyguard and undercover wife develops a search scheme both brilliant and dangerous.
