The Nathen Katz Private Investigations Firm gets its latest case when the Tannehill family approaches them directly, and hires them to find their missing daughter, Tiffany. The only thing that’s known about her prior to her disappearance is that she was getting heavily involved with a cult of christian extremists known as The Valentine Catholics.
The cult is led by the enigmatic Father Lucas Valentine: an excommunicated priest of the Catholic church who was kicked out for his radical beliefs, and for his lust for young girls. Unfortunately, this is all anybody, including Nathen really knows about the guy. No one knows where his cult headquarters is, or how to find it.
And to make matters even MORE complicated, Nathen eventually discovers that he and Raymond aren’t the only ones looking for Valentine. Whoever gets to him first may impact their chances of finding Tiffany, and bringing her home. Assuming, of course, it’s even possible to find her in the first place.
Check out the latest in The Nathen Katz Mysteries via this link.
I started writing this book shortly after my efforts to get The Jack of Spades (the first Nathen Katz Mystery) went belly up. Reminding me that for-real publishers are only interested in the same old tired crap they’ve already been reading like Shadow and Bone or Bridgerton. Reaffirming my belief that self-publishing, while not glamourous and generally looked upon as hackish by mainstream society, is the only way I’ll ever actually get published.
I actually had, like, four other ideas for nathen Katz Mysteries in my head, and I couldn’t decide on which one to start with. So I ran a pole on Twitter (back when it was Twitter, and not X). Father Valentine actually tied with another villain I had for a how-catchem style mystery, The Midnight Phantom. So I had to flip a coin, and Father Valentine ended up winning.
Less than a month into writing the rough draft, however, my wife announced to me that we were going to be having a baby. Exciting news for sure… But in the short term, would put a bit of a damper on my ability to write. Thus, I did what I could to step up the time table, and try and get this story published.
I was able to finish the rough draft, and I’d made it through a generous portion of the second draft… Then, my wife’s water broke. Everything got a little hazy from there, but once the panic subsided, we were at the birthing center, waiting for our baby boy to be born. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say, that was probably the most panic-inducing experience of my life. Not made any better by the fact our baby had to be delivered via C-section.
Time passed, we got into the rhythm of parenthood, and eventually, I was able to pick up where I left off in the proofreading.
As it stands currently, this is one of those stories I started out being super proud of during the rough draft process. By the time I was done with the final draft, I was fucking done with this story. I wouldn’t say I HATE this story… But it’s going to be a while before I probably read it again.
In fact, the rest of 2024 might see me take a bit of a break from The Nathen Katz Mysteries. Thankfully, a lot of these are episodic, so there’s no REAL urgency to pick up right where the last one left off. Also, this brief break of sorts is the chance I need to get some other projects finished once and for all.
In 2025, I might pick the series back up. We’ll have to see for sure. Currently, I haven’t decided which of the three ideas I want to write next, and I might do some poles on my social media accounts to see for sure which one you guys might get a kick out of.
In the mean time, I hope you enjoy reading this mystery. It was a beast to write compared to the first one, and I hope to god the others don’t end up being such ordeals.
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