Don Pendleton's Joe Copp Mystery Series Now At Kindle

The Joe Copp Mystery Series by Don Pendleton
Featuring Southern California Hard-Boiled Private Investigator, Joe Copp.

Now Available for Kindle at amazon.com

Reviews of the original hardcover editions of the six Joe Copp Thrillers

“Pendleton has a great new character in Copp. His style is fresh, the pace is brisk, and there are enough twists to please any mystery fan.” ~St. Petersburg Times

“This Joe Copp adventure reads like an express train. A throwback to the vintage Spillane era, Pendleton knows how to keep us turning the pages.”~Publishers Weekly

“Pendleton proves again he is the equal of Mickey Spillane when it comes to the hard-boiled mystery.”~Flint Journal

“Pendleton, author of the long-running paperback Executioner series, shows in his first hardcover that hardboiled writing can be insightful as well as action-packed.”~Library Journal

“Pendleton is a master of action and dialog and ‘Copp’ is a taut detective story.” ~Milwaukee Sentinel

“A roller coaster ride of mayhem, murder...rollicking fun.”-Publishers Weekly

“Gripping...Riveting.”~Publishers Weekly

“Pendleton deserves his popularity...A real whiz-bang of a story.”~Associated Press

“Action filled...Copp is a likable tough guy...An exciting, satisfying read.”~Booklist

“A fast-moving, even blurring, story of murder behind the floodlights.”~Book World

“Pendleton, author of the highly successful The Executioner series, knows how to write high adventure tales, and Copp In Deep is just that. Good reading!” ~Abilene Reporter-News

“...this mystery with a twist...unveiled in a riveting resolution.” ~Publishers Weekly


Copp For Hire, the first of the Joe Copp, Private Eye thrillers, is a high tension, fast-moving story all the way, with Copp always in the eye of the storm and about to be engulfed in it at any moment. Characteristic of Don Pendleton’s stories, the hero is never passively involved but is the catalyst for action in straight-ahead, hard-hitting pursuit of solutions, although forever at the point of being overwhelmed by the developing situations. This is classic hardboiled detective fare, and Pendleton is a master of the form.

Copp On Ice: Don Pendleton’s Private Eye, Joe Copp, takes on the world of corruption within a sprawling community in Southern California.

Copp In Deep: In a fast-moving adventure filled with high tension and intrigue, Don Pendleton’s ex-cop turned Private Eye, Joe Copp, sinks into a world of greed and corporate corruption, treason, professional sex, and murder on demand.

Copp In The Dark: Don Pendleton plunges his private eye character, Joe Copp into the dark shadows and lower depths of legitimate theater in this fast-moving story.

Copp In Shock: Private Investigator Joe Copp finds himself recovering from a bout of partial amnesia after being nearly blown away with his own gun. A woman is dead, and Copp’s riveting search for answers leads him from Los Angeles to Mammoth Lakes mountain resort where, in his darkest hour, he is in a fierce battle with his own mind and with those who want to eliminate him.

Coming soon to Kindle, Copp on Fire by Don Pendleton.

Don Pendleton is creator of the original The Executioner: Mack Bolan Series of Action/Adventure novels and is considered the "father of the Action/Adventure" literary genre.

The novels are also available in tradepaper.

Reviews of PI Novel, Shattered Lens by Linda Pendleton

Amazon.com (temporarily) has lowered the price on my novel, Shattered Lens: Catherine Winter, Private Investigator!

I’m pleased at the response I am getting from readers about my book. When the manuscript was completed, my friend, Richard S. Prather had asked to read it. The late Richard S. Prather was a best-selling author for many years. He wrote the Shell Scott Mystery Series of forty books, very popular during the 1950s through the 1970s, with the last two Shell Scott novels published in 1986 and 1987. Not too long ago, one of his non Shell Scott books was re-issued by Hard Case Crime. I’m involved with his estate in marketing his very last manuscript, The Death Gods.

So when Prather asked to read my book I was a little anxious because he was a stickler for pacing and especially for plot. And any critique from him was valuable, very much in the same way it would have been from my late husband, Don Pendleton, and from several other well-seasoned writers.

Well, Richard loved the book and loved my character, Catherine Winter. He gave me this endorsement, “Linda Pendleton’s first private-eye novel is a brilliant debut.” He said many good things about my book and also encouraged me to write a Catherine Winter series. At that time I did not think I would write a second book.

I know Don could pick up any book and read less than a page and say whether the author was a good writer or not. I’m not sure that I can do that in reading a page of someone’s work unless it happens to be so badly written that it falls apart at first sight.

Another friend, author Jon Guenther, who has written about thirty books now, most being Don Pendleton’s Executioners and spin-off Stony Man novels, and his most recent book, Soul Runner, wrote two great reviews—one he put up at Amazon.com and the other he posted to his blog. I was thrilled with what he said about Shattered Lens.

I think you may see why....

“The hardcore mystery makes a come-back! Too many mysteries these days are little more than watered-down thrillers. At last, a whodunit in the spirit of a Sherlock Holmes mystery has returned. Linda Pendleton busts out of the gate with her first novel of licensed private investigator Catherine Winter. Winter picks up a young girl for a client--a young girl wrapped up in the glitz, drugs, and porn of Hollywood life--who shortly thereafter winds up dead. And the list of suspects is neither short nor usual.

“What makes the book so pleasurable to read outside of the brisk pace is that nothing comes easy for Winter. She has to "earn" it in the same way that Linda has earned her right to sit at the top with today's other crime writers. The inside look at Hollywood and surrounding areas rings with authenticity. As a writer, I've often been disappointed in a lot of mysteries on the shelf but I knocked this one out in no time at all. Yeah, it was just that easy. Part police procedural, part hardboiled, and all entertaining, this one's a keeper.” ~Jon Guenther, Author, Soul Runner

Here is a review from a reader:

“Great! Another page turner I couldn't put down from Linda Pendleton. I really enjoyed the main character, Catherine Winter, Private Investigator. Interesting, no nonsense, but fun, well rounded older gal. She is just as interesting and sexy as the younger ones.

“She's also a great detective. Meets up with some interesting characters to solve this crime of murder. Of course things are never as easy or clear as they seem at first. Twists and turns, a new clue, a new character, you never know what's coming. You will definitely enjoy this one.” ~Anne Boss

Amazon does not seem to tell us authors how long our book may be listed on sale but apparently from what Amazon has told me, the periodically reduce prices, and in this case my book is now reduced more than $4.00. So you can now pick it up in tradepaper back for the sales price $10.76...and for you Kindle readers, it is $8.95.

Thanks to those of you who have read it—and I love getting the great comments and reviews! It is becasue of the response I have received that I decided to write a second Catherine Winter...and hopefully it will be completed over the next few weeks.

I’ve been away from writing the story for the last week or more as I’ve been busy formatting five of Don Pendleton’s Joe Copp Private Eye novels for Kindle. More about those soon.

~Linda

Hollywood Blacklist 1947-1950s

“How can you write if you can’t cry?” ~Ring Lardner 1885 – 1933), American sports columnist, short story writer, known for his humor and satire.

When I first saw this quote I had believed it to be the Ring Lardner who had been one of the Hollywood Ten, the Blacklisted screenwriters and entertainers of the Senator Joseph McCarthy era—the House Un-American Activities Committee. But that person was screenwriter, Ring Lardner Jr., son of Ring Lardner.

More than 300 artists—including screenwriters, directors, actors, and others in the entertainment industry were blacklisted by the studios.

I’m reminded I did met a few of those writers who had been blacklisted and had their careers affected by having to testify before the Committee. Of those were film and TV screenwriters, Alfred Levitt, who appeared before the committee in 1951, and his wife Helen Slote Levitt. For nearly twenty years following the Committee appearance, they were forced to write under the pseudonyms of Tom August and Helen August. Beginning in 1988, Levitt led an effort through the Writers' Guild to correct film credits from the blacklist era, in which it became common for the work of blacklisted writers to be uncredited, or credited using pseudonyms. Numerous films have now been correctly credited due to the efforts that Alfred Levitt led.

In 1995, Alfred and Helen Levitt were awarded The Morgan Cox Award by the Writers Guild, presented to that member or group of members whose vital ideas, continuing efforts and personal sacrifice best exemplify the ideal of service to the guild.

Helen passed away in 1993 and Alfred in 2002. They were a very nice couple.

~Linda

Gen. Colin Powell on Gays in the Military

Retired General Colin L. Powell, former Secretary of State, now, 17 years later, states the "don't ask, don't tell" restrictive legislation should be repealed.

"Attitudes and circumstances have changed," Powell said. "It's been a whole generation" since the legislation was adopted, and there is increased "acceptance of gays and lesbians in society," he said. "Society is always reflected in the military. It's where we get our soldiers from." He also stated, "we've had a lot of experience watching what other nations have done."

It would have been nice if he could have come to this conclusion 17 years ago when I wrote him, along with lots of other citizens, in hopes of changing his military mind to “allow” gays to serve our country.

It is long over due. And now Gates thinks it has be “reviewed for a year.” Why? There have always been gays in the military.

We all know that. Don’t they?

~Linda