Murder Mystery! Detective series! Crime-drama and who-done-it? Homicide Detective Lyle Odell is Mohawk City, New York’s finest homicide detective. He also is the old city’s only homicide detective. He chain-smokes cigarettes, and his diet consists of pizza, black coffee, and too much Irish whiskey. Odell is disheveled, eccentric, and absentminded. Often, he is teetering and tottering on his drunkenness while being haunted by his enemies and by the horror of homicide. Despite his flaws, Odell is a super-genius. Beyond brilliant. Odell is a modern-day Sherlock Holmes that does not miss a trick. His enemies dismiss him as a has-been—an alcoholic shadow of his former self. That is their second mistake. Their first mistake is committing what seems to be the perfect crime in Odell’s city. A city where Odell treads along with the phantoms. In gritty Mohawk City in upstate New York, there has been yet another death. A wealthy and beautiful young socialite from one of the richest families in Mohawk City turns up dead on a weekday night in a hotel room in the fanciest hotel in the old city. It seems as if she is the victim of her hard partying-lifestyle and her promiscuous and risky past and present. Outwardly, her sad passing is a cut and dry case of mixing drugs and alcohol . . . a terrible tragedy. Adding to the tragedy and the intrigue, the young woman works in Washington D.C. for the popular federal senator from New York. A senator who is a rising star in politics with his goals set upon the White House. Yet, is it a cut and dry? Or is there more to it? Homicide Detective Lyle Odell knows all too well the horrors of Mohawk City, and he knows how and why it earned the nickname of “Sin City.” The phantoms of crime, evil, and death haunt him and even gallons of whiskey cannot end their constant invasion into his heart, soul, and mind. As the case unfolds, Odell digs in and finds there is nothing cut and dry about this case. At all. As the good detective unravels the mystery and the case deepens in evil and in tragedy, he dives in where phantoms tread to solve much more than just the young woman’s tragic death. Plucked out of the pages of the novel O'Malley by his creator, Homicide Detective Lyle Odell proved to be a hugely popular character with readers. In O’Malley, the good detective helps the principal character solve the mysteries of his past and the brutal homicide of a fellow police officer. The character proved to so popular with readers that Paul John Hausleben wrote a novel starring Homicide Detective Lyle Odell. Here in his first solo adventure, the eccentric, systematic, alcoholic gumshoe detective proves why his creator earns the title of “The Master Storyteller” as the author weaves a masterpiece of murder mystery and crime-drama and creates another amazing character to add to a line-up of unforgettable characters in his many pages of written lore. Grab your copy today!

Murder! Mobsters! Detective series! Crime-drama! A touch or two of romance! Homicide Detective Lyle Odell and the entire Mohawk City police team and Odell’s trusted civilian friends return in a new adventure, and this time around; Odell and the team risk their careers, and maybe even their lives, as they face off with a powerful mobster boosted by a faction of the Russian network of organized crime operating in America. Mr. Ivan Petrov is powerful, handsome, and charismatic, and extremely wealthy. He is also the seemingly untouchable kingpin for the operation of the Russian mob in New York State. Petrov was on the top of the world, untouched, never challenged, until, suddenly, a beautiful young woman with ties to Mr. Petrov shows up deceased in a swimming pool in an exclusive apartment complex owned by Mr. Ivan Petrov. “It is just an accident,” the powers to be proclaimed. “An unfortunate tragedy.” Mohawk City in upstate New York is known as “Sin City” for its share of crime, grit, and generally, all round shady characters constantly lurking in the shadows of the streets within the city. When the great Mohawk City police homicide detective Lyle Odell is mysteriously wayward and sidelined for a “health issue” during a sensitive potential homicide investigation, his protégé, Junior Detective Miles Bradford, is suddenly thrust into the midst of the investigation. When Junior Detective Bradford declares the death of the beautiful young woman found in the swimming pool, a homicide, under rather weak evidence and questionable circumstances, it causes a ripple of doubt and mayhem within the Mohawk City Police Department and the political factions in the state hierarchy. The situation puts Captain Connor Moore, the frontline police officer for the Mohawk City Police Department, on the hot seat. Without his heralded and legendary detective heading up the case, the unpopular ruling of a homicide by a junior detective on what appears to be an accident causes waves of concern and uneasiness within the department and within the state politics. After all, Ivan Petrov is a very powerful and connected man! When the faithful friend of Lyle Odell, Police Lieutenant George Grundy rallies the police team and the friends of Lyle Odell, and he throws support to Junior Detective Bradford and Grundy jumps into the fray, Homicide Detective Lyle Odell rises from the ashes of despair, supports Junior Detective Miles Bradford and his conclusions, and makes sense of the impossible case. Suddenly, the tide is turned; Ivan Petrov is on the hot seat, as the Odell-led team closes in on the trail and Petrov’s power, and his criminal empire is challenged and on the brink of collapse! What ensues is a game of cat and mouse between the assembled team led by the genius of Detective Lyle Odell and the powerful crime family of Ivan Petrov. Which team will prevail? Plucked out of the pages of the novel “O'Malley” by his creator, Homicide Detective Lyle Odell proved to be a hugely popular character with readers. In “O’Malley,” the good detective helps the principal character solve the mysteries of his past and the brutal homicide of a fellow police officer. The character proved to so popular with readers that Paul John Hausleben created a series of novels starring the eccentric, systematic, hard-drinking, gumshoe Homicide Detective Lyle Odell. Here in this latest Detective Lyle Odell novel, the author weaves an exciting murder mystery and crime drama mixed with his usual unforgettable characters, and proves once again why Odell’s creator earned the title of “The Master Storyteller.” Grab your copy today!

“Tells the stories of more than fifteen locations on South Bass Island in Lake Erie that are attached to some rather hair-raising ghostly tales.” —Visit Put-in-Bay Behind Put-in-Bay’s breathtaking scenery and wild nightlife is a side of the island that will make your hair stand on end. Passersby claim to see the ghost of assistant lighthouse keeper Sam Anderson, who jumped to his death in the turbulent water of Lake Erie during an 1898 smallpox outbreak. Doors open and close of their own accord, and some say a spirit named Benny tosses things around at the Put-in-Bay Brewery and Distillery. Stage actor T. B. Alexander married the granddaughter of famous abolitionist John Brown and became one of the island’s most noted mayors. His ghost is said to linger in the historic barroom of T&J’s Smokehouse. Author William G. Krejci hosts this tour of the darker aspects of island life.

Who or what is that shadowy figure playing the piano in the school music room after dark? Several students and Deputy Barney set out to solve this musical mystery with surprising results. Phantom of the Music Room features six songs with clever texts set to musical classics by Chopin, Dvorák, Sousa and others. For grades 3 and up. App. 30 minutes.