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New Gabe Bergeron Mystery!   Farmer, Physicist, Bookkeeper, Spy Outside the sun was shining on a June morning; dulcet breezes were sighing; flowers were wasting their sweetness on city air. Inside Gabe Bergeron, CPA, was crunching numbers ceaselessly in his little cubicle. Well, he might be in the breakroom making coffee currently but he was work adjacent.   And then his day, week, and life started to degrade; rapidly and relentlessly. It began with his client Marge Swank showing up at Garst Accounting dressed all in black. With a veil. And this ill-omened raven refused to croak about why she had appeared in his office. Where no Bergeron man had seen her before. And then she vanished. Which was also unprecedented. And unwonted. And unheard of. And the following morning, tall, lean, icy-eyed Monroe, spy, intelligencer, and rogue operative, was standing over his bed and saying, “I need your help.” And Gabe was dragged from his bed...literally...to a crime scene; to D...
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  New Gabe Bergeron Mystery!  Reluctant Sherlock   It was a dark and stormy night. Except it wasn't. Well, it was definitely dark and stormy but it was 9:00 am. And Gabriel Henri Bergeron, CPA, was huddled in the lobby of his apartment building on Arch Street. Lightning and thunder and howling gales and sheets of rain were currently assaulting his building and indeed the entire city of Philadelphia. Which was the reason for the huddling. He sighed. He was supposed to be on vacation for the whole week, but Chase was idling at the curb in his very red, Toyota Tacoma pickup. Waiting for Gabe Bergeron. Chase was most definitely a friend and all around stalwart fellow. And he had found it impossible to refuse when he'd asked for help on a new case. The tumult seemed to be easing just a bit, and he ran for it, leaping into the truck that rode far above the roadway on fat, spiky tires. Chase smiled at him, lighting up the cab of the truck, radiating in all thre...
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    New Gabe Bergeron Mystery!     Gabe & Cory's Momentous Misadventure   He called Aunt Flo to give her the news. It was necessary to stress the positives about this, because Aunt Flo didn't like it when he went sleuthing. She was his great-aunt Florence Barnes and had taken him in when she'd returned from thirty years in Cuba. He had lived with her and her comrade, Ezmeralda Gutierrez, from the age of thirteen until he had gone off to college. “Aunt Flo?” “Yes, Gabriel. How are you?” “Splendid! And not just because I finally got to see Cory's office, tour the Hoover Building, and meet Micah 'Fab' Ott and Neema Clemens, who also share the office.”   Aunt Flo giggle-cackled. “What else, Dear?” “It has finally happened.” “I need more, Gabriel.” “Right. Well, I've been briefed by two FBI agents about a FBI case. The veil has been torn asunder, and I have been made privy to FBI secrets.” “The two agents being Cory and Matt.” ...
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New Gabe Bergeron Mystery!   The Face That Launched a 1000 Scams     He had met Angelica Amici Butler at a funeral . Which should have set off warning bells, but she was equipped with a luminous, awe-inspiring smile. Her face was an ellipse so perfect that Euclid would have wept to see it. Rivers of ebony hair cascaded over her shoulders. She had big, brown, soul-capturing eyes, a slender nose, and perfect lips. She was sublime. The only appropriate response to coming face to divine face was a sharp intake of breath and a glazed look. And then to run away; hard and fast. Since Angelica was not what she seemed; beginning with her name. But she was the one who had run away...after her husband, Will Butler, had been party to a murder and burned through two fortunes to bankrupt himself for her. Detective Sergeant Vélez of the Maryland State Police hadn't been able to track the fair Angelica down, and nine months had passed, and he had forgotten her. Until now. ...
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 New Gabe Bergeron Mystery! The Darjeeling Caper   Third in a series of short stories. Read it for free: Saturday through Monday, 5/14, 5/15 & 5/16   (Note: New full-length Bergeron Mystery will be published in July)    This wasn't in his job description. He was an accountant and was totally indifferent to the happiness of his clients. Well, if he could get them a tax refund, it usually cheered up the most despondent among them. But otherwise. But Ned and Gary Armstrong were upset, distraught, anxious. This anxiety manifested itself as a slight squinting of the pale blue eyes. And a total breakdown of their business skills. On a good day, the Armstrong brothers could process a credit card transaction without the help of the customer. Cash transactions were still problematic. And they were not having good days. The brothers were of average height and average build and did not have faces that would launch a thousand ships. Not that he was su...
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 New Gabe Bergeron Mystery! Mechanic's Child Second in a series of short stories. Read it for free: Friday through Sunday, 4/8, 4/9 & 4/10 (Note: New full-length Bergeron Mystery will be published in July)   Stan Abramowicz had been his mechanic for ten years, and he was Stan's accountant. They were sort of friends. Not that he'd invite Stan to go out to a bar for a beer; even if he drank beer or frequented bars. Stan's garage in West Philly had been moderately profitable for all of that decade. Until May. When Stan's revenues nose-dived. Or so it appeared. It was now August and hotter than the hinges of the gates to Hell, and he was standing in front of Stan's garage, imploring Stan to tell him what had gone so wrong. But Stan was intent on deceiving his accountant/friend, Gabe Bergeron. This was not nice of Stan. He expected this sort of behavior from Marge Swank of the Montgomery Gallery. He couldn't trust a single figure which Marge vouchsa...
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 Aunt Flo's Victorian Aunt Flo's Victorian home, sitting on the banks of the Pocomoke River near Snow Hill, Maryland, is one of the major settings of the Gabe Bergeron mystery books. The inspiration for this fictional structure was the parsonage of Immanuel Methodist Church in Crisfield, Maryland. The parsonage itself was torn down in 1973 and lives on in a few photos and antique postcards. The home was introduced in Book #1, "Death on Daugherty Creek" “ Great-aunt Flo lived in an old Victorian pile on the banks of the Pocomoke River. There was a cypress swamp nearby, and Neal loved everything about the river and the swamp. He'd had his doubts. It had seemed like another world when he'd first come to live with her. The gate was closed so he couldn't drive up to the house. The air was motionless, thick and oppressive with heat and humidity and mosquitoes. The river was flowing languidly without a ripple on its surface. A foursome of young ...
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