Books By Grabenstein,Chris
Hell Hole - John Ceepak Mystery #4
"Hell Hole" is the fourth book in the mystery series featuring former hardened military PD and current Sea Haven, NJ police officer John Ceepak and his partner, wise-cracking Danny Boyle. In "Hell Hole," Ceepak is confronted with his most personal case yet when he must investigate the alleged suicide of a military corporal who recently returned from Iraq. When it turns out that this "locked stall" rest stop suicide is anything but an open-and-shut case, Ceepak and Boyle realize that the corporal might have been privvy to information that opens up a much larger conspiracy that strikes at the heart of our involvement in the Middle East, and puts them on the wrong side of some very unpleasant people...
Mad Mouse - John Ceepak 2
Mad Mouse - John Ceepak Mystery #2
It's almost Labor Day, and the end of summer could mean the end of someone's life in this exciting sequel to Chris Grabenstein's TILT-A-WHIRL. Young Danny Boyle, the part-time summer cop "down the shore" in Sea Haven, New Jersey, gets taken on a wild ride when he and his longtime beach buddies become the unwitting targets of a mad-man's twisted scheme for revenge. Fortunately, John Ceepak, the cop with a soldier's unshakeable code of honor, stays at Danny's side to help him negotiate the quick twists and turns that threaten to destroy his life, his friends, and everything about the world he loves. Whipping from the boardwalk to the beach and back again, MAD MOUSE, like TILT-A-WHIRL, keeps zigging and zagging at a breakneck pace, all the way to the surprising finish. Kirkus named Mad Mouse one of the ten Best Mysteries of 2006.
Metro Girl - Alex Barnaby book 1
Mind Scrambler - John Ceepak Mystery #5
John Ceepak and Danny Boyle are making the rounds in Atlantic City (interviewing witnesses for the one crime left unsolved at the end of HELL HOLE) when Danny runs into his former crush, Katie. She's working as a nanny for the children of a magician named Richard Rock, the headliner at one of the big casinos. When Katie is found strangled to death backstage, it is up to Ceepak and Danny to find out who killed her. Their lives and the lives of others depend on it. "Grabenstein's appealing fifth John Ceepak mystery (after 2008's HELL HOLE) finds ultra-straight-arrow cop Ceepak and his laid-back partner, Danny Boyle, on leave in Atlantic City. Soon after a former girlfriend of Boyle's, the nanny for a smarmy stage magician's children, approaches Boyle for advice, she winds up dead in a bizarre S&M ritual before she can explain the problem. The local police deputize the two Sea Haven, NJ, cops as more corpses pile up. Ceepak and Boyle aren't too surprised that everyone is lying in a murder case involving professional illusionists with nasty secrets. Grabenstein has a good eye for the grit under a glitzy setting and a good ear for character-defining accents, including Boyle's wry narrative voice. In less skillful hands, Ceepak might come across as a mere hybrid of Sherlock Holmes and Dudley Do-Right, but the author succeeds in making his hero's earnest devotion to a rigid code of behavior both believable and moving." Publishers Weekly
Slay Ride - Christopher Miller Holiday Mystery 1
The Crossroads - Zack and Judy Jennings Mystery 1
Winner of the Agatha Award for Best YA/Children s MysteryOne of the Top 10 Crime Fiction Books for Youth: 2009 Booklist The Children's Book Council/International Reading Association Children s Choice list for 2008 Chris Grabenstein's first book for younger readers is filled with the same humorous and spinetingling storytelling that has made him a fast favorite with adults. And, adults enjoy this book just as much as the kids do. "Have you ever seen a face hidden in the bark of a tree and known that the man trapped inside wanted to hurt you?" Zack, his dad, and new stepmother have just moved back to his father's hometown in Connecticut, not knowing that their new house has a dark history. Fifty years ago, a crazed killer caused an accident at the nearby crossroads that took forty innocent lives. He died when his car hit a tree in a fiery crash, and his malevolent spirit has inhabited the tree ever since. During a huge storm, lightning hits the tree, releasing the spirit, who decides his evil spree isn't over, and Zack is directly in his sights!
The Hanging Hill - Zack and Judy Jennings Mystery 2
This is the follow-up to the multiple-award winning book The Crossroads. Meet Zack and Judy Jennings. Just your average ghost-seeing kid and his famous author stepmother. Off to enjoy a summer at a theater doing a production of Curiosity Cat based on Judy's books. But the director has another show in mind, and that production requires a child born under a full moon. A child who might not survive opening night. And Zack? He was born under a full moon.
Tilt a Whirl - John Ceepak Mystery #1
A billionaire real estate tycoon is found murdered on the Tilt-A-Whirl at a seedy seaside amusement part in the otherwise quiet summer tourist town of Sea Haven, New Jersey. John Ceepak, a former MP just back from Iraq, has joined the Sea Haven police department. Far from forgetting the horrors of war, he is to lead the investigation, partnered by Danny Boyle, a 24 year-old, part-time summer cop. The gruesome Tilt-A-Whirl murder pushes Ceepak s deep sense of honor and integrity to the limits as unexpected twists and turns keep the truth spinning wildly in every direction.
Whack A Mole - John Ceepak Mystery #3
An innocent discovery on the beach in Sea Haven leads to a string of gruesome clues and one chilling conclusion: a long dormant serial killer is poised to strike again. In another fast-paced thrill ride, Danny and Ceepak, the cop with a strict moral code, race against the clock to undercover a hidden mole with a twisted code all his own. If they don't catch the killer in time, someone they love may become the next victim.
