If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

Shark Skin Shoes: The First Bert Nichols Mystery

by Tom Byrne

270 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #06-0233; ISBN 1-4120-8479-2; US$19.95, C$22.94, EUR16.39, £11.47

Everyone except the police want Bert Nichols to find the killer of a Mexican marijuana mogul before a drug war erupts in the little town of Kona, Hawaii.

About the Book

Bert Nichols is the reluctant chief of security for a second rate hotel in Kona, Hawaii. As a refugee from his not too distant drinking days, he struggles to keep his head above water and his eye on the prize. The prize turns out to be the lovely Nina or is it her identical twin Tina? Bert is never quite sure which one he is with at any given time.

His sweetly confusing life is turned up side down when the body of Mexican drug lord, Benito Juarez Guzman is found face down in room 427 of the hotel. Someone fired two warning shots through the back of Benito’s head. Now everyone from an irritating Drug Enforcement agent to a pair of very happy Japanese VIPs to Benito’s lethal business associates seem to want Bert to find the killer.

He seeks help from a group of street-wise transvestites, who hook him up with a loopy ex-hit man from the east coast and a quiet little clairvoyant who is dying of cancer. As the tide of chaos rises around him, Bert keeps hearing a small voice telling him he’s being set up. Nothing is what it seems and everyone knows something they’re not telling.

Was Benito executed by a rival gang of Columbians bent on controlling the Hawaiian marijuana trade or is there a deeper power struggle being played out? Bert must be getting close to the answer because someone keeps trying to kill him.

About the Author

Tom Byrne was born and raised in Westchester County, New York. He began acting and writing in his early teens. As a student at Boston University during the Viet Nam era, he became involved in the anti-war movement. Moving to the woods of Oregon he became a hippy and continued both acting and writing. After seven, wet winters in the Northwest, he out grew his long hair and moved to Hawaii where he began to write plays. He lived on the Island of Hawaii for two decades working as an actor, drama teacher, reporter and radio news announcer. He has written twenty-seven plays. Upon returning to the U.S. mainland, he began work on the first book in the Bert Nichols mystery series Shark Skin Shoes. The sequel Poi Dog Bone is due to be released before Christmas of 2006. He now lives in Cape Town, South Africa with his wife and children.

Excerpts