H.K. Slade
Purveyor of Fine Fiction and Champion of the Oxford Comma
Stories
Looking for a good story to read? Get an overview of each series here or skip to the individual stories in the blog section.
TLDR: Classic whodoneits featuring a retired homicide detective and his protégée, the daughter of his old partner.
Police work is mostly a grind, procedures and processes that catch the criminal. Usually. But Officer Friday Hampton has a knack for finding those cases that require good old-fashion sleuthing. She has a steady hand and a good heart and, most importantly, a sharp mind, but when the mystery requires even more, she can always count on her old mentor, legendary retired homicide detective Ambrose Broyhill. Chronology: A Courtyard of Villains Hit and Run Purpose Made Last Gasp A Body at the Dam Rough Morning A Piper Has Fallen Murder by the Creek
TLDR: Speculative fiction about a secret society of mystics, psychics, and professional detectives attempting to investigate occult threats in the latter half of the 21st century.
Akayla Daniels spent the first half of her law enforcement career avoiding difficult situations and the second half attempting to restore the honor of the profession. She failed miserably on both counts. When Akayla’s career ends catastrophically just two years shy of her full thirty, the mysterious Kinston Collective offers the disgraced homicide detective a place in their organization. Now, at a time in her life when she should be collecting a pension, Akayla must find redemption in her second career as an occult investigator. Chronology: Monsters in the Night Gone Wrong A New Evil House in the Snow The Siren and the Phoenix The Gateway Legacy Irony Where to start: A New Evil
TLDR: In these police procedurals, a diverse group of young recruits grow from amateur sleuths into police officers and finally become the most renowned investigators of their generation.
The greatest detectives on in any given city at any given time didn’t start out that way. They began as raw recruits, struggling through the day-to-day of academy life, then the long nights on patrol, and that’s all before they truly learn the ropes as junior grade investigators. But what they lack in experience, they make up for in enthusiasm. For the men and women in the Academy Stories, police work is still an adventure. There are mysteries to solve and bad guys to catch! It’s a look inside real police work—somewhere between Harry Bosch and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Chronology: The Academy A Stranger in the Trailer Park Field Training Foot Chase Battle Worn Resolve The Social Worker Where to start: Foot Chase
Casey Burton, PI
TLDR: Hard boiled beach-noir that follows the cases of a resourceful but down on his luck private investigator as he haunts the town he outgrew but never managed to leave.
Young Casey Burton had world in front of him. He was popular, smart, a promising athlete, but then life happened. Thirty years later, he’s still kicking around the resort city of Virginia Beach. He knows the town like the back of his hand; the people, the streets, the underbelly. The problem is, they all know him, too. Casey tries to make his way though life as a private investigator specializing in trademark infringement, but the ties of his past pull him into the types of cases that can ruin lives…or end them. Chronology: Never Look Back Queen for the Day Where to start: Never Look Back
H.K. Who?
About the Author
H.K. Slade grew up fascinated by storytelling, the magical process that allows one person to transport another back in time, across the universe, and into the middle of danger, mystery, or adventure with mere words. Some of his favorite practitioners of this art include Sir Terry Pratchett, Raymond Chandler, Tony Hillerman, Steven Pressfield, Christopher Moore, Tamora Pierce, and Jim Butcher.
First published in the Powhatan Review many years before the invention of the Zune, H. K. Slade has since had his works of fiction published in Visions Magazine for the Arts, The Black Water Review, Alien Skin, Down in the Dirt, Peridot Books, Allegory Magazine, Mystery Weekly, The Yard, Everyday Fiction, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Dark Horses, Black Cat Weekly, and a variety of anthologies.
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He lives in North Carolina with his family and, until the state allows him to retire and write full time, spends his weekdays teaching heroes how to slay dragons.
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