Cold Slice: A Terry Saltz Mystery

Terry Saltz has just gotten out of jail. He'd gotten wasted and trashed a bar. While in jail, his wife divorced him and took his truck and mobile home. Losing his truck hurt the most! So he's having to start over. His friend Danny lets him come live with him in an attic apartment. He gets a job as a pizza night delivery driver at Carlo's pizza place. He hooks up with Gruf, Bump and others there. Terry also starts building a deck for Bump. He was a carpenter before jail. His new carpentry side business really takes off and soon Gruf is helping him. When The Witness (Ed Hanus), another driver, gets killed out back, Terry and the guys decide they'd better help the police look into it. Especially when Seargant Alan Bushnell brings Terry in for questioning. The guys decide they need to get to know The Witness' background, friends and family better. No one at Carlo's really hung out with him. And they need to do all this without Alan finding out and without putting themselves in danger - there is a killer out there! When I first started reading this, I wasn't sure if I'd like it. By the end, I loved it! Terry is such a great character and so different than any other protagonist. I think the author has done a great job of interspersing enough cuss words, etc., to make these guys believable, but yet not so many it can't be classified a cozy. Carlo's is the kind of place everyone would like to work. They have a lot of fun, but they get their work done. The camaraderie these guys develop is terrific. Breakfast at Brewster's is another great touch! Their curiosity to help solve the crime is natural. I highly recommend this book (the first in the series) be read before the others. It's terrific, you won't be able to put it down!

I don't even know if "medium boiled" is a genre, but I don't know how else to describe a book which is not too dark, and not too light. You can read this book after something heavy, as a way to lighten up without shocking your system.... or you can read it after something light, so you don't get whiplash before that noir novel. Terry and friends are fabulous characters who evolve throughout the book. The plot is fast-paced -- but not at thriller speed -- and not at the expense of character development. A very satisfying read!!

Terry Saltz took a drunken rampage through a local bar, cooled off in the county jail, and has now decided to get a life. He moves to a small town at the other end of the county with an old friend, and starts his life over again.On the main street of town, across from the cafe, Terry notices a pizza place. Nothing all that special about the place, but he knows he's got to get a job to generate some income, so strolls across the street. Inside, he meets a down to earth manager who hires him to fill a recently vacated job as a pizza delivery guy. His job training is hilarious as is the entire comedy-mystery.Saltz know he has to remain sober and clean and employed, and that he has to meet with his probation officer once each week. He gets to know his co-workers at the pizza place and he is introduced to a wide veriety of people he might not have looked at twice in his former life. He's amazed to learn that one of his new friends is an attorney. Another new friend, a seemingly wasted Hell's Angle type, is also a very successful and well-known local small business entrepreneur. Slowly but surely, these and others begin to draw him into their circle and Terry finds himself surrounded by a very cool and incredibly funny group of friends. They like him. They respect him. He thinks they're awesome. His life is becoming richer and he feels great about it.Saltz realizes he's got more time and talent than money, and stumbles into a carpentry job. This had been his profession. He had the time, tools and know-how, so he began working at building a deck at the lawyers house in the mornings and early afternoons. Late afternoons and nights, he delivered pizzas. He's aware that he needs the structure of a steady pace. He's also delighted that the deck building job generates some serious money. One of his friends wants to learn the carpertry trade and is will to work as his helper if Terry teaches him the job skills. The seemingly seperate parts of his life (breakfasts at the cafe, building the deck, meeting with the probation officer, moving into the trailer court and getting furniture) all begin to over lap. The more comfortable he becomes with himself, the more he appreciates what's growing into a busy and very interesting life. Right up till that night in the parking lot behind the pizza place...."Cold Slice" is advertized as a "working man's mystery," and it is. But the great thing about it is that we all know Terry Saltz. He's the kid who sat in front of us in high school Spanish class. We've looked around the local hang-out, and wondered why we haven't seen him lately. Working man? Yeah. But you'll see in him a little bit of someone you've known and loved. This guy is everybody's hero.On one level, this is the story of a soon-to-be-divorced man getting his act together. Much to his surprise, in the process he finds himself involved in murder. But on another level, L. T. Fawkes gives us an oppertunity to crawl under the skin of a

What a great surprise this book is. I am generally nervous about reading new authors, but L.T. Fawkes has really started to make a name for himself. The characters are vivid and liekable with personalities with whcih everyone can associate. I couldn't put it down. Easy and fun to read. I can't wait for the next one.

After going to jail for doing tremendous damage during a bar fight Terry Saltz loses his wife, his job, his truck, and his motor home. The only person to stick by him was his friend Danny who came to visit him in prison and offered to share his apartment with him after he got out. A couple of weeks after he is on the streets, he takes a job as a driver for Carlo's, a very popular pizza place.He's right up front with everyone, telling them he's an ex-con but the manager is more interested if he can start tonight because one of their drivers was in an accident. Terry makes friends with Bump and Gruf who take him under their wing, find him and Danny a new place to live and get him his truck back. When one of the least liked drivers is killed, Terry and company decide to do a little investigating on their own because nobody messes with the people who work at Carlo's.Anyone who doubts that men can bond with one another and be there in good times and bad must read COLD SLICE, an upbeat mystery that proves males have emotions and are not afraid to show them to those they trust. Terry and his friends are all blue-collar workers and their lack of pretentiousness will be enjoyed by a whole different segment of mystery readers. L.T. Fawkes has written a very exciting mystery starring a protagonist whom will appeal to men and women.Harriet Klausner