Book 1

Free Form Jazz

by Lee Lamothe

Published 1 January 2010
Disgraced city cop Ray Tate and outcast state trooper Djuna Brown track down a wealthy sexual sadist and a depressed career criminal flooding a Midwestern U.S. city with killer ecstasy pills. Mismatched and mutually suspicious of each other, Tate and Brown hunt the mythic Captain Cook and his henchman, the homicidal Phil Harvey. But as Captain Cook sinks deeper into a spiral of sexual depravity, Phil Harvey begins to question his role as a lifelong gangster.Tate and Brown discover, as they sift through the rubble left by their targets, that no one is what they appear to be not even themselves. Travelling through the Chinese underworld, clandestine drug laboratories, and biker-ridden badlands, the troubled duo encounter murder, political corruption, police paranoia, and psychosis, but can they find redemption?

Book 3

Presto Variations

by Lee Lamothe

Published 1 January 2013
2014 Arthur Ellis Award — Shortlisted


Following the money trail gets Tate and Brown into a lot of trouble.


Detectives Ray Tate and Djuna Brown are back from a vacation in Paris – fraudulently funded by a stolen State Police credit card. While waiting to find out if they’re going to be fired or jailed, the couple is assigned to the Green Squad, a dead-end job shuffling paper and counting contraband money. But while interrogating a money smuggler, Tate and Brown uncover a massive currency stash they hope will keep them out of jail. Their target is drug trafficker Laszlo "Marko" Markowitz, who has millions in cocaine profits to be laundered and shipped into Canada.

As Tate and Brown try to penetrate the Markowitz organization, they uncover an underworld choking on its own profits and find a homicidal madman who has created the perfect blend of criminality and anarchy.

Book 3


Picasso Blues

by Lee Lamothe

Published 1 January 2011
Ray Tate and Djuna Brown are assigned to a task force investigating a series of mysterious murders that seem to be racially motivated. More than a whodunit detective story, Picasso Blues is a gripping tale of missed opportunites and hidden desires set amid rampant cynicism, fear, and deadly danger.