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Meet Trenton Russell

A former CIA analyst who comes in out of the cold only to discover real life is no bed of roses . Now an investigative journalist, he exposes secrets and lies, not being a part of them. The problem is, as he soon discovers, is that corrupt men…and women will stop at nothing to keep their greedy games going. Including murder, kidnapping and extortion. He plays high stakes blackjack for income and discovered a unique gift. Sometimes he sees vision in the flashing cards. Instinctual insights into mysteries he's working on. But more often than not, the stakes are not money, but human lives.

In the 1st book of the Trenton Russell series, the old west comes alive in modern day Las Vegas when a serial killer begins murdering women in brutal rituals resembling an 1860's Indian massacre. Three women so far have been found raped and murdered. A Native American gone psychotic? When the daughter of a wealthy casino owner is taken, Frank Durbin calls on his best friend, Trenton, who has an uncanny ability to solve crimes with his highly developed analytical abilities and card counting skills. He soon discovers that all is not what it seems. That the ransom of three million dollars is only the beginning of a deadly game of intrigue and betrayal. Another woman is killed to make a point. Pay the three million and the deed to his casino or else. When Durbin's daughter escapes her captor with the help of an old prospector and flees into the desert night towards the mountains of Northern Arizona, the killer is right behind them. Trenton enlists the aid of a Navajo tribal policeman as a guide and mentor and they frantically give chase. The chase ends in a tragic climax, but its not the end of the game. They've uncovered an organized cartel of drug dealers who will stop at nothing to prevent Trenton from unraveling the web of lies and deceit surrounding the apparent kidnapping.

All books are stand alone novels, but will make more sense if read in order

BIO

Gerald Austin Boltz Is a fine arts painter, writer, and cartoonist currently living in Bethel Island California. Born in the Missouri Ozarks in 1940, he grew up in Kansas City until 1959. While still in high school, he enrolled in The Minneapolis School of Commercial Art and graduated with honors just a week before graduation and enlisting in Naval Air for four years. Duty stations included VF-124, fighter squadron, Moffit Field CA, Midway Island where he was attached to Naval Intelligence as a courier, and the USS Bennington aircraft carrier. Upon returning to Kansas City in 1963, he found work in a small ad agency doing layout and copywriting. Evenings were spent doing gag cartoons for major magazines. Cartoon publishing credits include The Saturday Evening Post, Hustler, and Men’s Action Magazine. Married in 1965, he and his wife with their newly born son Christopher moved to San Francisco in 1966 and found themselves living in the upper Height where friends included, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Brautigan, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. He enrolled in The Academy of Art for three years, majoring in fine art and philosophy, then to Sonoma State University for creative writing. He exhibited paintings widely around the bay area throughout the seventies, subsidizing his creative efforts by working construction and doing charcoal portraits on the streets near Fisherman's Warf. He worked in Hollywood for a few years, doing set construction, special effects model making and sculpture for the movies. Upon retiring from the real world in 2006, he turned to writing to keep creatively active and decided to write mystery thrillers based on his real life experiences playing card counting blackjack in Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe in the late eighties. A protagonist who "sees" clues in the flashing cards. It was a very heady time. Although never a high stakes player, he fondly remembers when he played Texas Hold'em with Doyle Brunson, Stu Unger and Larry Evans. (A chess grandmaster who turned to playing cards for a living in his later days) and sat beside Willie Nelson at a blackjack table in Vegas where Willie lost over nine thousand dollars. He is the author of 4 books so far in the Trenton Russell series, and almost finished with a 5th. The Night of the Blue Lights. Look for it soon.

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