When a
shady character offers him $25,000 to steal a thousand-year-old pot from
the Valle del Rio Museum, Hubert Schuze knows he should turn it down.
His pot digging may be illegal, but it’s a big step from that to
robbery. But he figures it can’t hurt just to visit the museum and assay
his chances.
He figured wrong.
After deciding the museum is impregnable, he returns to his shop to find a BLM agent who accuses him of stealing the rare pot. Theft charges escalate to murder.
Hubert’s powerful deductive skills and weak nerves are put to the test as he solves the crime and clears himself.
EPICON Winner 2010 ~ New Mexico Book of the Year 2010
On the day Mike
Orenduff got his drivers license, his father gave him a 1950 Oldsmobile
coupe that stranded him in so many New Mexico towns that he got to know
every mechanic south of Truth or Consequences. By the time he entered
graduate school at the University of New Mexico, he and his wife Lai
were driving a more reliable car - a 1965 Volkswagen Beetle - and they
drove the wheels off it exploring exploring t
he
northern half of the state. His love of The Land of Enchantment is
evident in his
Pot Thief
mysteries which have won The New Mexico Book of the Year Award, the
national 'Eppie' award for best mystery, The Dark Oak Mystery Award, and
Fiction Book of the Year from The Public Safety Writers Association. He
enjoys hearing from his readers and can be contacted at
ThePotThief@gmail.com
Mike departs on his promotional tour later this spring...
watch for details of his appearances at
www.orenduff.org and
“Orenduff Grabs you by the tortillas, hooks you in early and doesn’t let you go until the last page.” — Marie Romero Cash, author of Tortilla Chronicles
WINNER!!! Dark Oak Mystery Contest 2007
Buy it now in our BOOKSTORE or Amazon.com, BN.com
Maybe it was the chance for an easy $2500. Or maybe it was the chance to examine a treasure trove of Anasazi pots…or maybe it was just a slow day at his Old Town Albuquerque shop that prompted Hubie Schuze to be blindfolded and chauffeured to meet a reclusive collector looking for a confidential appraisal.
Sure, it was an
odd setup, but what cou
ld
possibly go wrong?
Hubie’s devil-may-care attitude fades fast when he finds three of his own Anasazi copies among the genuine antiquities. Worse, when the driver drops him back home, what he doesn’t find are the twenty-five crisp hundred dollar bills the collector gave him.
Incensed at the rip-off, Hubie is determined to recoup his cash, but Detective Whit Fletcher interrupts, dragging Hubie to the morgue to identify a John Doe. When the sheet is pulled back, Hubie is stunned to see the collector.
Hubie is not a suspect – yet. But the longer he pursues his missing appraisal fee, the more tangled he becomes in the collector’s shadowy life.
Nominated for LEFTY Award!
“Sure to appeal to fans of humorous mysteries.” —Lucinda Surber, Stop You’re Killing Me.
“Orenduff knows how to spin an intelligent tale and turn a surprising phrase.” —F. M. Meredith
The pot thief is back, but this time
Hubert Schuze’ larceny is for a good cause.
He wants to recover
sacred pots stolen from San Roque, the mysterious New Mexico pueblo
closed to outsiders. An easy task for Hubert Schuze, pot digger. Except
these pots are not under the ground – they’re 150 feet above it. In the
top-floor apartment
of Rio Grande Lofts, a high-security building which
just happens to be one story above Susannah’s latest love interest.
Hubie’s legendary deductive skills lead to a perfect plan which is thwarted when he encounters the beautiful Stella.
And when he is arrested for murder.
Well, he was in the room where the body was found, everyone heard the shot, and he came out with blood on his hands.
Follow Hubie as he stays one step ahead of building security, one step behind Stella, and one step away from a long fall down a garbage chute.
Finalist for EPICON 2011!
THE POT THIEF WHO STUDIED Escoffier...
