David writes the Duncan Cochrane series of political thrillers about a successful Chicago businessman who learns the price of ambition.
Crime Thriller Hound gives They Tell Me You Are Wicked four stars, writing, “It works as a who-dunnit but it’s the Cochranes story and political life that’ll provide the fuel for this series”
Shots Magazine writes “a compelling picture of the Windy City when it was still in thrall to the mob and its own unique political machine.”
All four are for sale from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Evolved Publishing.
Story Summary
In book one, They Tell Me You Are Wicked, the time is 1978, and the setting is Chicago, where Richard Daley’s death has left the political machine grasping for a successor. Into that vacuum steps Duncan Cochrane, a successful businessman with little political experience but with aspirations of becoming governor. Six weeks before election day, Duncan awakes to find his daughter has been killed in her bed. With a police investigation that seems to drag on aimlessly and time working against him, Duncan must use whatever power and influence he has to catch the killer and win the election. To read the opening chapter, click Here.
The second book, They Tell Me You Are Crooked, picks up two years later as Duncan is faced with a sniper in Chicago’s most notorious housing project, Cabrini Green. While hunting for this killer, he starts receiving blackmail letters threatening to reveal the family secret that could ruin his career. To read the opening chapter, click Here.
Book three, They Tell Me You Are Brutal, resumes another two years later as a saboteur kills five people with a pain reliever. Duncan must pursue this terrorist as he tries to contain a leak of his shameful family secret and run for reelection. To read the opening chapter, click Here.
The latest book, They Tell Me You Are Cunning, follows Duncan after he’s left office. Despite his pledge to stay out of sight and out of politics, allegations of police brutality and false confession pull him back into the spotlight. He must investigate the case of a man sentenced to death and protect his own son from the prison system. To read the opening chapter, click Here, or hear it read aloud by a terrific local actor on Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast.
To read an interview with David about book four, go to The Rap Sheet.
To read the latest story about Duncan Cochrane, purchase Low Down Dirty Vote 2, an anthology of short political crime fiction. Here is a video preview.
Inspiration
They tell me you are wicked, and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked, and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal, and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
from Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg
