Tough. Cynical. An ex-cop, and a man who plays by his own rules.
More Mike Hammer than Spenser, Rafferty isn’t afraid to call a spade a goddamned shovel, and then use the metal end to take out the bad guys.
There’s only one problem. He’s got a soft spot for life’s victims and just can’t help but get involved when the chips are down—even if it’ll cost him big time.
Some rules aren’t made to be broken.
Fifteen years ago, Dallas cop Rafferty saved ten-year-old Vivian Mollison from a gunman—and lost his badge for it. Now, he scrapes by as a private investigator, hustling cases to make ends meet.
Then the Mollisons call. The little girl he saved had grown up, built a future. Until the day she was kidnapped, brutalized, and discarded like trash—while the men responsible walked away free. Vivian’s father wants justice. Her mother wants blood. And they both want Rafferty to get it for them.
Rafferty isn’t a hired gun; he’s a detective. He’ll find the men. He’ll uncover the truth. But once he does, there may be no walking away. Because once you cross some lines, there’s no going back.
He was supposed to be on vacation. Then a woman turned up dead.
Rafferty figures a week alone on a borrowed yacht might be just what he needs. Peace, quiet, and a little bourbon—no clients, no complications.
But on his first night docked in Hallston, he meets Cindy Lawson. By the time the sun comes up, she’s dead—and Rafferty’s in jail.
With the police convinced they’ve got their man and the townsfolk ready to write him off, Rafferty’s got no choice but to do what he does best: stir up the locals, get his hands dirty, and find justice for Cindy.
Not everyone shares his sense of duty.
Because in this picture-perfect lakeside town, secrets run deeper than the lake—and someone’s willing to send Rafferty to a watery grave to keep them hidden.
She had the files. She had a plan.
Now she’s dead—and everyone’s lying about why.
Cricket Dawes had proof—names, dates, dossiers—pointing to something rotten inside a billion-dollar energy operation. The night she planned to go public, she turned up dead in a parking lot.
The cops say it was a mugging. The press lost interest fast.
Jim Winchester, the fast-talking head of a local activist group, thinks otherwise. He hires Rafferty to find out what really happened to Cricket—and, more importantly, to find the files she stole.
But Rafferty doesn’t like Winchester, doesn’t trust his story—and the deeper he digs, the worse it smells.
From dirty money to missing evidence, from shady suits to street-level threats, Rafferty’s chasing a killer who’s buried their tracks beneath layers of lies. But Cricket deserves justice. And Rafferty? He’s not the kind of guy who lets a murder slide.
It was supposed to be a simple job. Then the bullets started flying.
Rafferty thought he was doing a favor—teaming up with a down-on-his-luck bounty hunter to track down a bail jumper. But when the target ends up dead, Rafferty realizes he’s been set up as the fall guy in someone else’s hit.
He’s barely caught his breath when a local woman hires him to help her elderly uncle, who’s being harassed by a crew of neighborhood punks. A separate job. Or so it seems.
Now, with bodies piling up and two cases colliding, Rafferty finds himself in the crosshairs of someone with money, muscle, and a reason to keep the truth buried. The cops know he didn’t pull the trigger—but that doesn’t mean he’s safe. Not when someone’s cleaning up loose ends.
Rafferty’s not one to run. He asks questions, rattles cages, and kicks over rocks—until someone makes the mistake of kicking back.
Someone wants a man dead. And they thought Rafferty was the guy to do it.
It starts with an innocent street-corner mix-up. Mistaken for a contract killer, Rafferty gets handed the details of a hit-for-hire job. But when he lays it all out for the cops, they show him the door and tell him to forget the whole thing.
Never one to walk away, Rafferty decides to warn the mark. Good deeds never go unpunished. Rafferty ends the night holding a suitcase full of cash—with a corpse at his feet.
Now he’s caught between a police department that won’t get involved and the real hitman who wants his payday. And when someone goes after Hilda to send a message, Rafferty stops waiting for permission—and starts drawing lines.
Because it’s one thing to threaten him. It’s another to target the woman he loves.
Her husband’s missing. She says he’s a secret agent.
Rafferty’s pretty sure he’s just a liar.
Patty Akister approaches Rafferty to find her husband—a meek furniture salesman named Sherm—who hasn’t been home for three days. Patty swears he’s a spy. The cops aren’t buying it. Neither does Rafferty. But something about her story doesn’t sit right, and against his better judgment, he takes the case anyway.
Sherm isn’t that hard to track down. But by the time Rafferty gets there, he’s already dead. And suddenly this is no longer the case of a cheating husband—it’s about a hapless bagman, a low-rent mob boss with big ambitions, and a turf war set to rip through the underbelly of Dallas.
With the cops clamping down, the streets heating up, and a bunch of innocents caught in the crossfire, Rafferty’s walking a fine line between the woman he’s trying to protect and the truth she doesn’t want to hear.
Because some lies are harmless. And some get you killed.
She ran away with a preacher. Now she’s trapped—and Rafferty’s walking into hell to get her out.
Kimberly Troupe left home chasing love and a new kind of faith. Her parents say God told them she’s in trouble. Rafferty doesn’t believe in divine intervention—but something about their desperation sticks.
The trail leads to a fringe religious group with a charismatic leader, a remote compound, and previous devotees struggling with PTSD. The deeper Rafferty digs, the darker it gets. Because he’s not the only one trying to make it inside.
With the walls and a trigger-happy federal agent closing in, Rafferty will have to decide how far he’s willing to go to save someone who may not want saving—and what happens when belief becomes a weapon.
He watched the massacre. He caught the shooter. That should’ve been the end of it.
Rafferty saw the whole thing from his office window. A boy with a gun. Screams. Chaos on the high school basketball court—too far away to intervene, too close to ignore.
But he had to do what he could. So, minutes later, Rafferty was chasing the bloodied teenager through the streets of Dallas.
Now the kid’s in a coma, the media’s in a frenzy, and Rafferty’s sure justice is waiting—just as soon as the boy wakes up.
But when the kid’s mother shows up begging for help, Rafferty takes the job. He needs the work. And, with what he already knows, it’ll be a slam dunk.
It’s not.
Because the deeper he digs, the more the story starts to shift—until even Rafferty can’t tell the difference between what he saw and what really happened. Between right. And wrong.
Someone wants London Baines dead. Only his luck has kept him breathing so far. But luck runs out.
Rafferty gets the call from Herbert Baines, self-styled tycoon and over-protective father. Someone’s targeting his son—London, a tabloid magnet with more enemies than sense. His car is firebombed. A bloody package gets delivered. No real harm done. Not yet. But Daddy wants it handled, and he’s willing to pay for discretion.
Rafferty figures it’ll be an easy payday. Babysit a spoiled rich kid, collect the check, move on. But it doesn’t take long before things get serious. Shots fired. Bodies drop. And suddenly Rafferty’s dodging bullets and dragging London out of trouble he doesn’t even understand.
The cops are chasing headlines. The press is chasing ratings. And someone else is still chasing London—with a scope and a silencer.
Now Rafferty has to get serious—before the next shot isn’t a warning.
The first three complete novels in the Shamus Award-winning Rafferty P.I series.
Rafferty’s Rules: Fifteen years ago, Dallas cop Rafferty saved a little girl—and lost everything. Now, that same girl’s bright future has been suddenly and brutally shattered. Her powerful parents want Rafferty to find the men responsible… and settle the score.
But Rafferty isn’t a hired gun. He’s a detective—and some lines, once crossed, can never be uncrossed.
Last Seen Alive: A borrowed yacht. A quiet vacation. A murdered woman.
Rafferty just wanted a break. Instead, he ends up in handcuffr, accused of killing a woman he met the night before. The police are sure they’ve got their guy, and the town’s already decided he’s guilty. To clear his name, Rafferty has to find the real killer—before someone decides to shut him up for good.
Poor Dead Cricket: She had proof. Now she’s dead—and Rafferty wants answers. Cricket Dawes had files that would take down a billion-dollar energy company. Then she turned up dead in a parking lot. The cops say mugging. Cricket’s contact, a slick-talking activist named Winchester, says murder. Rafferty says: something stinks.
Tracking down the truth means cutting through a web of corporate spin, political pressure, and street-level violence—before the same people who silenced Cricket come for him.
Rafferty is back in this second collection of three complete novels from the award-winning Rafferty P.I series.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time: A routine job. A dead man. A setup Rafferty didn’t see coming. Teaming up with a wannabe bounty hunter seemed harmless—until the guy they’re chasing turns up dead, and Rafferty’s left holding the mess.
Now he’s juggling two cases, both twisted: one with a body, the other with a scared old man and a crew of local thugs. And somewhere in the middle is a truth someone’s willing to kill for.
Cannon’s Mouth: He’s been threatened before. This time, they went after Hilda. One dead man, one mistaken identity, and one suitcase full of cash—now Rafferty’s in the crosshairs, with no badge to hide behind and no help from the cops.
But if someone thinks they can scare him off, they’ve picked the wrong man. Because Rafferty doesn’t forget. And he doesn’t forgive.
Fatal Sisters: Her husband’s gone. She says he’s a spy. Rafferty thinks he’s a con. Three days missing, and Sherm Akister’s already neck-deep in lies, mob money, and a case that smells worse the closer Rafferty gets.
Then Sherm turns up dead—and Rafferty finds himself caught in the middle of a turf war that’s about to blow Dallas wide open.
Rafferty and his friends are up to their old tricks in this third collection of three complete novels from the award-winning Rafferty P.I series.
False Gods: A missing girl. A preacher with a following. A compound with doors that only open one way. Kimberly Troupe ran off chasing faith and ended up in a cult. Her parents want her back. The feds want an excuse.
And Rafferty? He wants answers—before the whole thing goes up in smoke.
Wright & Wrong: Rafferty thought he saw the truth. He thought catching the shooter meant it was over. But now the kid’s in a coma, the mother wants answers, and Rafferty needs the work.
What begins as an easy case turns into something far more dangerous—because what you see isn’t always what happened. And sometimes the hardest thing to face… is your own certainty.
Down the Barrel: Rafferty’s seen plenty of rich kids in trouble. But London Baines doesn’t even know why someone wants him dead. The threats keep coming. The cops aren’t helping. And Rafferty? He’s starting to take this one personally.
Because when bullets start flying and the lies close in, there’s only one way out—straight through.
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Author photography by the incomparable Neil Thompson Rees. Instagram @monocaptus