Books by A.P. Greenwood
NAVFAC The Final Tour of Duty
 |
In 1970, with nineteen years of service and after his second tour of duty in Viet Nam, Lieutenant Commander Alex Wolfe is assigned his final duty station, Naval Facility Cape Hatteras with its primary mission of using passive sonar systems to track the movement of Soviet submarines. He is told that nothing ever exciting happens at a Navfac. But within a few days of his arrival, a murdered sailor’s body is discovered in the nearby woods, and then a Soviet nuclear submarine is lost at sea under suspicious circumstances. Alex must investigate both and yet finds enough time to become enamored with a popular local widow who has a secret of her own. Alex asks an old friend, an agent with the CIA, for assistance with the murder investigation, but quickly discovers that the CIA might have a different agenda.
|
Lakota Dreams
 |
In 1872, young Nate Henderson travels from Texas with his family, dreaming of gold in the Black Hills. But on the way, tragedy strikes in Nebraska, and for the next four years his life, as well as his dreams, are transformed. As Nate grows into manhood, he develops a strong relationship with both the largest Lakota Sioux tribe and with their sacred Black Hills. He eventually moves to the frontier town of Stonewall where he discovers first-hand the might of the Seventh Cavalry and the intentions of its leader, George Armstrong Custer, to remove all Indians from the Dakota Territory.
|
Something Else in Common
Over the past two months, four men have been murdered in their Houston homes. Each victim was killed on a Sunday evening, and in each case nothing apparently was stolen, and inexplicably, different guns were used in the four murders. The police have no witnesses and no suspects. Rhett Sanders, owner of a local marketing research firm, is visited by the parents of the latest victim who plead with him to investigate their son’s murder. Their son participated in a recent survey conducted by Rhett’s firm, and they had read the publicity Rhett had received for using his research to solve murders in the past. Rhett had promised to give up being an amateur detective, but the despair in the faces of the grieving parents, along with his desire to do the right thing, motivate him to get involved. He and his girlfriend, Toni, and his best friend, Chris Beck, undertake an investigation, believing they can solve the case if they can discover what else the victims had in common other than the way they were murdered. Their heart-stopping investigation takes them to the small town of Schulenburg, and along the way some unexpected twists present grave threats to the well-meaning amateur detectives.
An Uncertain Suicide
The same primary characters, Rhett Sanders, Toni Darnell, and Chris Beck get involved in detective work because again, Rhett’s daily diversion uncovers an unlikely event.
The Chronicle reported a man, Jake Taylor, had committed suicide by leaping into the murky gulf waters from a fishing pier late at night. He disappeared and had left a suicide note in his car. When Rhett checked the name against his company’s data file, he learned that Jake Taylor had been recruited by his research firm at random to participate in a focus group on financial planning for a local bank, just six weeks earlier. In reviewing the video of the focus group, Rhett, being an expert in evaluating human behavior, could not believe Jake Taylor would ever commit suicide. In the focus group, Jake was upbeat, confident, and a man who Rhett calculated would never surrender to anything or anyone.
A day later, the Chronicle reported the murder of a wealthy widower, Marvin Delhomme, which had been discovered by the victim’s son. The murder had taken place in Delhomme’s home just hours before the uncertain suicide of Jake Taylor, but Rhett made no connection of the two events until later.
There was another interesting participant in the focus group, Doctor Robert Goodfellow. Dr. Goodfellow and his brother Richard ran a medical clinic that offered various medical specialties. Richard was a plastic surgeon, but Robert Goodfellow had given up his patient practice for stem cell research, something he hoped would provide both fame and fortune. The largest contributor to the stem cell research was Marvin Delhomme.
The drama includes Rhett’s parents who had retired to a community within twenty miles of Jake Taylor’s summer cabin. Rhett, Toni, and his daughter visited his parents at a time they believed the mystery had been solved and put to rest. The only action remaining would be the apprehension and arrest of Jake Taylor by local hill country police, once the proper paper work had been completed. Unfortunately, Jake Taylor learns of the collapse of his “big score” and seeks revenge.
The Improbable .38
Rhett Sanders is a divorced father of a twelve-year-old daughter named Grace. Rhett is an ordinary man who strives for self respect, character, and courage in everything he does. As the owner of a research firm, his days are busy and demanding. A creature of habit, Rhett Sanders starts his mornings off reading the Houston Chronicle scanning the newspaper quickly. Index cards within reach, he is ready to jot down names of five people published in the news. He enjoys this investigative game and when he arrives at the office of AC Research, he plugs the names into a database of people who were part of the random samples of surveys he conducted in the past, just to see what he discovers. When he cross references the name of Bobby Joe Milstead, he is intrigued.
