[NightBird]

G.M. Ford's backlist, originally published by Walker & Company, a division of Bloomsbury, in the 1990s, is being republished by Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint. Five of the seven Leo Waterman detective series set in Washington are reduced from $4.99. All are $2.99 except Thicker Than Water, the latest and apparently last one, which is $1.99.

Hapless, rumpled, heart-on-his-sleeve, middle-aged, intelligent, grumpy, funny, smart-ass, and true blue, Seattle private eye LEO WATERMAN stumbles from one bizarre case to another, in this highly-entertaining, sometimes laugh-out loud funny, critically-acclaimed series, by G.M. Ford. Aiding him in his escapades are "the boys," a gang of "residentially-challenged devotees of cheap alcohol." Yep, not to put too fine a point on it, Leo's sidekicks are a bunch of winos and bums .

Thrilling Detective


1. Who in Hell is Wanda Fuca?

When an old gangster friend of Leo's father makes a request he "can't refuse," Leo and his band of drunks, delve into the world of environmental politics in search of Caroline Nobel, a spoiled brat, without the sense God gave a gopher. With the help of "the Boys" -- a group of aging winos who are his modern day "Baker Street Irregulars" -- Leo fights Native American tribal politics, industrial pollution, and psychotic grannies to fulfill his obligation to a friend.

2. Cast in Stone

Leo's boyhood hero, Henry "Heck" Sundstrom was larger than life. Lately, however Heck's life has been spiraling out of control. First the honeymoon boating accident that killed Heck's son and new daughter-in-law, Allison. And now the big man himself was dying--struck down by delivery truck in a seedy section of Seattle. As he starts to investigate, Leo begins to wonder if Allison went down with the ship. And whether, with the aid of his, aging legmen, "the Boys," he can prove they're on the trail of a "black widow" who may be less "late" and more lethal than anyone ever suspected.

3. The Bum's Rush

When a homeless woman says she's the mother of a deceased rock idol, sometimes private eye Leo Waterman takes it upon himself to investigate the lady's claim. With the help of "the boys", a band of dissolute deputies, Leo begins a life-threatening pursuit of the truth nobody wants to hear.

4. Slow Burn

Anticipating problems, a prestigious global restaurant convention hires Leo as Special Security Officer. His assignment: monitor the movements of two adversarial steakhouse competitors whose "beef" has previously made for some nasty confrontations and a food critic who's caught in between the warring factions. Leo sends the Boys off to shadow all three parties and report back to him. But even the simplest of plans can cascade into catastrophe. And Leo soon finds himself served up as the prime suspect in a murder...realizing that both his life and career are at stake.

7. Thicker Than Water

Hard living collects its fair share of casualties, but somehow Leo Waterman avoided becoming one of them. Destined for a trust fund that was taking too damn long to kick in, he spent years eking out a living in Seattle as a private investigator. Along the way he managed to survive countless run-ins with murderers, drug dealers, and jealous wives. But when Rebecca, the love of his life, dumped him to marry someone else…that was a different story. Still, he took it like a man, eventually collecting his family money and slipping into semi-retirement—until the day an unwelcome visitor brings him the worst possible news. Rebecca has vanished and no one, not even her manipulative, overprotective mother, can find a trace of her. Together with his band of informers and sidekicks (in truth a rather motley crew of homeless drunks and reprobates), Leo wades back into the game, determined to save Rebecca once and for all. But her trail is a twisted one, thick with deception and depravity that winds from the rain-swept streets of Seattle to the murky depths of the great North Woods. The stink of it all seems to emanate from none other than Rebecca’s new husband, Brett Ward, whose tangle of lies will cast Leo into the path of a ruthless gang that will stop at nothing—not even murder—to protect what’s theirs.