Trick or Treat Murders

Honorable Mention Winner of the 2014 Halloween Book Festival. Halloween is approaching fast and Jim Richards is asked by his police friend Deacon to help figure out who is murdering one woman every year for the last fourteen Halloweens. They have given the suspect the name, "Trick-or-Treat Killer" but they have no idea who he is. Jim and Earl Daws go on a mission to track down the facts from the first murder that set up the rest of the kills. Could it possibly be a dead boy who came back from the grave to murder his mother and the others? The investigation leads them to the miles of storm flood control tunnels under Las Vegas and the discovery of the homeless people who live there. One homeless man recovers Willy from a man who dog-snatched him from Penny and helps Jim navigate through the tunnels as they search for the killer. Will they find the killer in time to keep one last woman alive this Halloween? This is the 30th book in the series about the senior sleuth, Jim Richards and his crew of crime fighters.

Detroit area resident, Bob Moats, has been writing short stories and plays for as long as he can remember. He has lost most of his original stories, typed or handwritten, in the numerous moves he has made from his hometown of Fraser, Michigan to Northern Michigan, to Las Vegas and back to Fraser, where he now lives. Moats became one of the causalities of unemployment in 2009, and had time on his hands to finally pursue a life long dream of writing a full blown crime novel. Thus was born the first book, ＂Classmate Murders＂. What followed was a series of books starting with ＂The Classmate Murders＂ which introduces the main character, Jim Richards, who has to admit he has become a senior citizen, reluctantly. Richards, one day, receives an email from a childhood sweetheart asking for his help, but by the time he reaches her, she has been murdered. His life turns around and he is pulled into numerous murders of women from his high school who he hasn’t seen in forty years. Along with a friend of his, Buck, a big, mustached biker, they go off to track down the killer before he can get to one former classmate, Penny Wickens, a TV talk show host who Jim has just fallen for while protecting her. The killer is also murdering the women right out from under police protection, driving homicide detective Will Trapper crazy, and he slowly depends on Jim to help. There’s humor, suspense, wild chases across suburban Detroit with cops, classic cars and motorcycle clubs; murder, mayhem, a good amount of romance and a twist ending.