The Vinny Deluca Mysteries

The dead don't lie. They also don't shut up.

Vinny Deluca spent thirty years as a Detroit homicide detective. He buried his wife, closed his cases, and retired to Arizona to work in a county coroner's office where the biggest excitement was Carl's crossword puzzle debates and a coffee machine that only worked if you hit it.

Then the dead started talking to him.

It began after an ayahuasca ceremony his sister talked him into. Now every body on the table comes with a ghost standing next to it — confused, angry, or just annoyed about how they died. Vinny ignores them. He's got a system. Don't engage, don't respond, don't let Carl notice.

Then Beck Jenson lands on the table. Rancher. Gunshot to the head. Ruled a suicide. Except Beck's ghost is standing by the window saying it wasn't suicide — it was a deputy named Rivera who pulled the trigger, typed a fake note, and walked away clean.

Vinny has seventy-two hours before Beck's ghost disappears. Seventy-two hours to build a case using testimony no court will ever hear, without blowing his secret, without getting killed by the cartel running drugs through Beck's land, and without losing the one real friendship he's made since Marie died.

The evidence is there. The witness is dead. The clock is ticking. And the retired cop with the mop is the only one who can hear the truth.

Inadmissible is the first book in a new series blending procedural mystery with dry humor and a touch of the supernatural. For listeners who like their mysteries sharp, their protagonists world-weary, and their ghosts more annoyed than scary.