No More Illusions...A Mystery: (Second Edition)

Dylan Blake, a rookie cop at age 40 promoted to detective, finds his vacation interrupted when the Chief of Police asks him to take a look at an accident scene along the Pacific Coast Highway near Big Sur.

Part-mystery, part-romance, part suspense. . .a story that twists like the Pacific Coast Highway from Big Sur to Northern California and across the mountains to Utah featuring a likeable detective, his independent, twice-divorced girlfriend and a murder.

The cast of characters includes a successful business woman, a treacherous ex-husband, a billionaire brother, a kid from Compton, an aging Mafioso yearning for a good fight, a small-town police chief, and a shaggy mutt of a dog appropriately named Watson.

Kirkus Reviews (America’s premier and oldest book reviewer) describes the book as "Accomplished, ambitious crime fiction...a multilayered tale that has shades of California noir à la Chinatown." 5 STARS, "Best Books" from IndieReader. "...Written in the style of Elmore Leonard," says the San Francisco Book Review.

There are no cardboard characters or stereotypes, no serial killers, pure sociopaths, gang members, or terrorists. And that, in and of itself, distinguishes this novel from most of what's out there these days. Perhaps surprisingly, and despite what you might suppose given the subject matter, the story has a positive noir vibe--it's the antithesis of bleak and cynical, and it's a seriously layered, good read. You won't be disappointed.

Daniel grew up in a small midwestern town, served in VISTA (the domestic Peace Corps), attended seminary, went to law school, and worked as a community organizer in New York City before moving to California where he ran two small, start-up companies. He's an avid hiker who, like Dylan Blake, the detective he writes about in his contemporary mystery series, needs time in the woods. He lives in the Northern California foothills where he is presently at work on a new Dylan Blake mystery and just completed a coming-of-age novella, Lightning Bugs And Aliens, which was awarded 1st Prize For Fiction in a Nationwide Contest for independent authors. No More Illusions was featured in Kirkus Reviews trade magazine for film producers and literary agents. The book has received rave reviews from readers and various publications