Welcome To The World Of Owen McKenna
"A hero who walks confidently in the footsteps of Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, and Lew Archer"
Kirkus Reviews
Official Website of
TODD BORG
Author of the
Award-Winning
Owen McKenna Mystery
Thrillers
and the
Josie Strong Dark Road Suspense Thrillers
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PLEASE NOTE: The Tahoe Truckee area has a great local bookstore in Truckee that not only sells my books and many thousands of titles in their beautiful store, but they ship anywhere. Here's the link: Word After Word Books
You can also call them at 530-536-5099
Their address is:
Word After Word Books
10052 Donner Pass Road
Truckee, CA 06161
Introducing the Josie Strong Thrillers:
A Dark Road Suspense
Josie Strong is a Medieval History professor at UCLA. She's a single mom who's raising a 14-year-old daughter, Samantha Strong. They live in a two bedroom condo in Santa Monica close to the beach. Josie is celebrated for having the most popular class in UCLA's history department. Samantha attends a charter school, is a good student, and is also on the volleyball team. They have a good life.
This new series begins with a horrific problem...
WILDERNESS VACATION Book 1 (PUBLISHED JULY 1, 2024) |
In Book 1, WILDERNESS VACATION, Josie Strong arranges to take her daughter on a canoe trip vacation to the Quetico Wilderness in Ontario, Canada (Just north of the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness in Northern Minnesota). What Josie and Samantha don't realize is that they recently witnessed a crime that makes powerful men want them dead. What their would-be assassin doesn't realize is how hard they'll be to kill. The man who is pursuing them thinks it will be easy to follow them into the wilderness and leave their bodies in the woods. After all, Josie is a middle-aged, out-of-shape professor, and her daughter is just a kid. Both women are unarmed. But what the killer doesn't know is that the reason Professor Strong's Medieval History class is so popular is that she is an expert in Medieval weapons. The north woods may be a dark wilderness, but chances are that Josie can go into the forest and use ordinary materials to craft a deadly weapon. Good luck, Mr. Assassin. You've met your match. |
WILDERNESS JUSTICE Book 2 (Published August 1st, 2024) |
In Book 2, WILDERNESS JUSTICE, Josie gets a phone call from California's Bureau of Investigation. The agent tells her that Josie's daughter Samantha has been arrested for bringing drugs over the Mexican border on a school field trip to Tijuana. The Bureau sees an opportunity to pressure Josie into helping them find another killer, who is hiding in the wilderness of Yosemite. Track this man down the way you did the last killer, they tell Josie, and we'll let Samantha go. Refuse and we'll proceed with prosecuting her. While Josie believes Samantha was framed, she's desperately afraid they'll prosecute Samantha for drug smuggling. Her daughter could be tried as an adult and end up in prison. When Josie figures out where the killer is, she is arrested herself in a twisted scheme to hide a conspiracy. Josie has to escape and set a medieval trap to catch the real killer. |
WILDERNESS PUNISHMENT Book 3 (Published September 1st, 2024) |
In Book 3, WILDERNESS PUNISHMENT, Josie has just finished giving a lecture at UCLA when she finds the Governor of California waiting for her in his limousine. He tells her he has heard of her remarkable investigative skills, and he wants her to track down the man who murdered a family friend, Francis Telman, a Ranger for the U.S. Forest Service. Telman was shot and killed outside of his cabin at Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, and the killer escaped over the show on skis. Josie explains that she knows nothing about skiing or winter snow or even the mountain wilderness. But the governor is insistent. He's willing to provide a significant payment if she helps. He also suggests he could cause trouble with Josie's tenure track at UCLA if she doesn't help. Josie is outraged at the suggestion of blackmail. But she feels trapped. She takes on the job only to have Samantha nearly die in a shooting by a former Army sniper whose identity is unknown but who is called Typhon after the Greek God of monsters. Josie and Samantha's lives are in danger, and Josie's only hope is to get help from a former student who is a brilliant computer hacker and can help Josie track the man using special tracking software. Once Josie finds the man, she uses her medieval knowledge to catch the devious killer. |
WILDERNESS THREAT Book 4 (Published October 1st, 2024) |
In Book 4, WILDERNESS THREAT, the Governor of California contacts Professor Strong and tells her that a shooter she previously caught was killed in a transport truck explosion while he was being taken to prison. The governor pleads with Josie to reopen her investigation and find the culprits. Despite Josie's distrust and dislike of the man, she agrees to take the case because a young woman has been kidnapped. Josie enlists her former computer-hacker student to help find the location where the woman is being held. Then she designs a classic medieval assault on a religious abbey that is being used as headquarters for a criminal drug gang. The odds are overwhelming, seven armed men against Josie, her daughter, and some friends. But Josie will do anything to save the kidnapped woman... |
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Introducing the 22nd Owen McKenna Mystery! coming August 2024
A Young Woman Got A Dream Job
TAHOE FLIGHT
In TAHOE FLIGHT, a murderer is targeting Detective Owen McKenna and his Great Dane Spot along with several doctors who are attending a reunion being held in Tahoe. McKenna can't seem to figure out the connection between the murders, one of the methods of which is especially diabolical. However, McKenna does find out that a huge biplane is involved, and it may be used for his and Spot's last ride... TAHOE FLIGHT will be in stores come August 1st. And of course, you can always preorder the Kindle version from Amazon.
TAHOE MOON When Tahoe Detective Owen McKenna finds a lost girl, 8-year-old Camille Dexter, he doesn't realize that her grandfather and only guardian has been murdered and a killer has been hired to kill Camille and dump her body in the lake. McKenna also doesn't know that Camille has no relatives or friends because she and her grandfather have been living in his camper. Complicating the situation is that Camille is deaf. Brilliant but deaf. Camille's predicament will break your heart even as you fall in love with her grit and determination.
TAHOE JADE
A Letter from Abe Lincoln In the fall of 1861, President Abe Lincoln wrote a letter to the new governor of California, Leland Stanford. Lincoln sent the letter by Pony Express,which went through Tahoe. The letter from Lincoln was intercepted. It never reached Stanford. An Assault, A Fire, A Kidnapping 160 years later, Firefighter Jade Jaso was assaulted in Sacramento. The next day she nearly died in a warehouse fire. A short time later, her rancher father was killed in a fall at Lake Tahoe. Then Jade disappeared. A Coded Message When Detective Owen Mckenna is brought on the case, he finds Lincoln's letter hidden in the personal effects of Jade Jaso's father, who is a collector of historical memorabilia. The letter contains a coded message. McKenna learns that the message refers to a treasure Stanford had mentioned to Lincoln. Unfortunately, Jade's father made the deadly mistake of talking about the letter. Information of the letter came to a brute of a man who would kill or torture anyone who got in the way of finding that treasure, including Jade and her father, as well as Owen McKenna and McKenna's girlfriend Street Casey...
The 18th Owen McKenna Mystery TAHOE HIT A Sophisticated
Killer With A Fixation On Shakespeare's Hamlet... Deadly Past
Secrets... The Ultimate Revenge...
TAHOE HIT was an
instant Amazon Bestseller and Amazon's #1 Hot New Release in Literature!
In their review of Tahoe Hit,
Kirkus Reviews wrote, "A tense, engaging entry in a long-running
regional mystery series." TAHOE DEEP In 1940, a teenage blind boy named Danny
Callahan witnessed the scuttling of the SS Tahoe Steamer, the grandest
ship to ever sail Lake Tahoe. Eighty years later, a killer beats up old
man Daniel Callahan, demanding to know the truth about a deadly secret
that went down with the ship. If Callahan doesn't tell all he knows, the
people closest to Callahan will die... Here's what Kirkus Reviews said about
the previous McKenna thriller: "Yes, Borg's books are thrillers first and
foremost, with picturesque settings, but they're also educational as
well. Having a thoughtful, inquisitive man such as Owen at their center
enhances these volumes. And this latest outing is no exception. Another
impressive case featuring a detective who remains not only dogged, but
also reflective." - Kirkus Reviews TAHOE SKYDROP
A Computer Genius Created A Startup Worth A Billion Dollars
Tahoe tech guru Yardley LaMotte had a vision for future robots that
could transform the world. He started a company called Tahoe Robotics.
A Murderous Gang Wanted The Software
Twisted killers with ties to a Swedish prison gang figured out how to
steal the software. All they needed was the key to unlock the computer
code.
The Killers Kidnap A Child Who May Know The Password
A brilliant kid was in the classroom when the Tahoe Robotics founder
visited a local school and talked about encruption. When that kid goes
missing, the father contacts Tahoe Detective Owen McKenna.
McKenna Plans To Attack The Gang From The Sky
Wen McKenna learns that the kidnappers are hiding the kid at a
mountaintop compound protected by armed guards, he plans to rescue the
child by using a paraglider to drop out of the sky at night. But the
plan goes horribly wrong. Unless McKenna and his Great DaneSpot can find
the child, the child will die...
Tahoe Skydrop was in an Amazon promotion on Tahoe Skydrop at Christmas.
TAHOE SKYDROP shot to #1 on the chart. SWEET! The year before, McKenna got rave
reviews and made several bestseller lists with
TAHOE PAYBACK ... "An engrossing whodunit that
should keep readers guessing through the final twist" - Kirkus Reviews
2016's book, TAHOE DARK, was a local and Amazon bestseller and
received rave reviews.
"ONCE AGAIN, BORG HITS ALL THE RIGHT NOTES FOR FANS OF CLASSIC
DETECTIVE FICTION IN THE MOLD OF DASHIELL HAMMETT, RAYMOND CHANDLER,
ROSS MACDONALD, AND ROBERT B. PARKER." -
Here's what the critics said about my previous novel,
Tahoe Blue Fire. "TAHOE BLUE FIRE STARTS OUT WITH A BANG...AND HAS A SPECTACULAR
ENDING" - J Bronder Book Reviews "VERY ATMOSPHERIC, THIS IS ANOTHER EXCELLENT THRILLER BY TODD
BORG" - Harvee Lau, Book Dilettante "THIS READER HAS COME TO CARE DEEPLY FOR THESE CHARACTERS" - Cathy
Cole, Kittling:Books
My novels for 2014 and 2015,TAHOE GHOST BOAT and TAHOE BLUE FIRE, were immediate Amazon Bestsellers and stayed on Amazon's Private Investigator bestseller lists for months. The novel the year before, TAHOE CHASE, was chosen as Amazon's #1 "Hot New Release!" TAHOE CHASE also spent many months on Amazon's "Private Investigator" Bestseller list! . Cool news: The National Geographic has featured my books on their Sierra Nevada Geotourism website! Click this graphic to see the page:
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*** If you'd like to be on my mailing list, please send an email to todd@toddborg.com Please write "Please Add" in the subject line. I will never share your email with anyone. ***
"If you get the impression that I love these books, you would be correct. I've read four books in this series. All four have been "Wow" books for me. I've never had this happen before, but oh, am I ever enjoying it." Kittling: Books
***Over 800,000 ebooks and paper books in circulation and over 59,000 reviews, ratings, and shelvings on Amazon and Goodreads, at an average rating of 4.6 Stars
Recent News... The prestigious Left Coast Crime Convention recently came to Reno. I'm proud that they chose me to be the Toastmaster. If you wonder why I was excited about this honor, it's because past Left Coast Crime toastmasters are an impressive group. Previous Left Coast Crime toastmasters include Lee Child, Nevada Barr, Harlan Coben, James Lee Burke, Rick Riordan, Laurie R. King, and other literary luminaries. I'm a lucky guy!!
That's me at the very front of the audience of 550 mystery fans, handing out an award. Here's the link: Left Coast Crime Cathy Cole of the popular mystery blog Kittling: Books The Josie Strong Dark Road Suspense Thrillers
BORG'S AWARDS One of the Five Best Mysteries of the Year - Library Journal One of the Top Five Mysteries of the Year - G. Wedgwood, Mystery News Best Thriller of the Year - Bay Area Independent Publishers Association Best Mystery of the Year - Bay Area Independent Publishers Association Best New Fiction - Cincinnati Library Starred (Rave) Reviews - Library Journal, Midwest Book Review, Mystery News, Nevada Appeal, San Jose Mercury News and numerous other papers and magazines and websites - Thehe Owen McKenna mysteries have spent countless weeks on Amazon's bestseller list! WONDERING WHERE TO NORTH SHORE SOUTH SHORE
RENO CARSON CITY
GRASS VALLEY
***NEWS FOR
FRANCOPHILES *** The
French translation rights for TAHOE HIJACK were purchased by a
publisher in Paris! The French version of Tahoe Hijack is now out in
hardcover. The French title? TAHOE
L'ENLEVEMENT Une
Enquete Du Detective McKenna
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Borg walking up to receive
the Ben Franklin
Best Mystery of the Year Award for
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Good ol' Ben on the slab
of glass
Notice above that TAHOE BLOWUP |
The Owen McKenna T-Shirt
"I
had to rethink everything,
This luxurious long-sleeved T-Shirt comes from a line that McKenna says in Tahoe Heat. Nick-named the "Epiphany T-Shirt," more details are on the order page. SOLD OUT
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