Showing results by author "Neil S. Plakcy" in All Categories

He’s covering Formula 1’s hottest rising star.‎ He never expected it to be the man who broke his heart. ‎Journalist Wally Pulaski is sent to cover Formula 1’s most exciting rising star—‎Jonathan Hirsch.‎ The same Jonathan Hirsch he lost in college—and never got over. ‎Now Jonathan is on the verge of a championship, with the world watching his ‎every move. Wally’s job is to report the truth. No bias. No exceptions.‎

Two cozy novellas explore murder, mystery, and mayhem at the local dog park in this unique collection from authors Neil S. Plakcy and Joanna Campbell Slan.

Forty-two-year-old Steve Levitan has lost everything that matters to him: his marriage, his home, and his career. After finishing a brief prison term for computer hacking, he returns to his home town of Stewart's Crossing, PA, with his tail between his legs. With his parole officer peering over his shoulder, Steve begins a technical writing business and takes a part-time job as an adjunct professor of English at his alma mater Eastern College.

Fresh out of Florida University with a degree in construction management, Manny lands his dream job with Loredo Construction. He’s crushing hard on his thirty-something boss, Walter Loredo: a sexy, successful, and supposedly straight alpha male who commands attention on every job site.

After twenty-five years together, Jeffrey and Ray's marriage is crumbling. Ray's affair has shattered their trust, and both men are questioning whether their relationship is worth saving. In a desperate attempt to reconnect—or find closure—they apply for The Big Race, a reality TV competition that sends couples racing around the world for a million-dollar prize.

It's almost time for graduation, and Eastern College is in trouble. A prominent alumna is dead, and a faulty computer program is jeopardizing student records and financial aid. It's up to Steve and Rochester to dig into the situation and retrieve the culprits! Rita Gaines wasn't a nice person-but she did love her dogs, and most of her clients respected her financial acumen and her talent in training dogs for agility trials.

When his mentor, Joe Dagorian, director of admissions at prestigious Eastern College, is murdered during a fundraising event, Steve Levitan feels obliged to investigate. He and his golden retriever, Rochester, go nose to the ground to dig up clues, including a bloody knife and some curious photographs. But will Steve’s curiosity and Rochester’s savvy save them when the killer comes calling? A cozy mystery for dog lovers!

Gavin has the face, body, and confidence to light up a camera, and Miami’s modeling world is more than happy to use him for exactly that. From underwear shoots to glossy ads, the money is good, the attention constant, and the expectations clear: look pretty, stay quiet, and don’t ask for more.

Semi-reformed computer hacker Steve Levitan’s longtime girlfriend, Lili, is acting out of character, and he's eager to figure out why and how he can help her. But that gets delayed when he and his golden retriever, Rochester, are asked to help investigate a double homicide in a posh neighborhood of Stewart's Crossing.

Openly gay Honolulu homicide detective Kimo Kanapa’aka is faced with a new murder that comes dangerously close to his personal life. About a year and a half has passed since the flames engulfed Waahila Ridge State Park at the end of Mahu Fire. During that time, Kimo and fire investigator Mike Riccardi dated for about six months, but with Kimo so visible and Mike in the closet, the pressures on them increased to the point where their relationship ended. When a fire breaks out at a shopping center Kimo's father used to own and a young boy is killed, they are forced to work together.

A Body at the Purim Carnival. A Hidden Past. A Community in Danger. When his golden retriever Rochester noses out a dead body behind the bounce house at Stewart’s Crossing’s first Purim carnival, Steve Levitan is pulled into two dangerous investigations, each revealing its own world of secrets, power, and betrayal.

Eric and Allie share a history neither of them knows how to forget. Once, they were teenage stepbrothers thrown together by their parents’ marriage. Two boys navigating grief, rigid rules, and feelings neither was ready to name. One night changed everything. Silence followed. Then distance. Then years of pretending it never happened. Now they’re adults. Eric is disciplined, controlled, and freshly untethered after leaving the military and finishing his degree. Allie is rebuilding his life piece by piece after addiction and rehab, determined not to fail again.

The body in the canal belongs to Steve's old friend. Can Steve and Rochester uncover the clues to what happened to him? When his college friend Doug moves to Stewart's Crossing after an ugly divorce, reformed computer hacker Steve Levitan sees a way to pay forward the help he received under similar circumstances. But when Doug dies under mysterious circumstances, Steve and his crime-solving golden retriever Rochester have a new goal: Find the truth behind Doug's death, even if Steve has to risk the freedom he has fought so hard for to do it.

In Food of the Dogs, Steve and his bride Lili head to Vermont for a relaxing honeymoon—until Rochester uncovers a murder victim. Their romantic getaway turns into a dangerous search for a killer hiding among small-town secrets. Dog Grant Me finds Steve back at Friar Lake Conference Center, where a winter cooking course becomes the setting for threatening notes, political intrigue, and a student’s murder. As a blizzard closes in, Steve, Lili, and Rochester must unmask a killer before the storm traps them with a murderer.

Warren Updegrove has always been good at following the rules. Football gave him structure, purpose, and a clear future. But when his college career ends without the pro contract he expected, Warren is left drifting, unsure who he is without the game that defined him. What he isn’t ready to examine is the quiet truth he’s been carrying for years. Thom Lodge is steady, observant, and far more honest with himself than Warren knows how to be. What begins as a math tutoring assignment turns into an easy friendship, then it deepens into something Warren can’t rationalize or control.

When the Cuisine Network brings its brand-new reality show, Dog’s Kitchen , to the peaceful Friar Lake Conference Center, Steve Levitan expects chaos—but not sabotage. Celebrity chefs, foodie influencers, and gourmet-loving dogs descend on the property, turning Steve’s summer into a whirlwind of barking, baking, and behind-the-scenes drama. His golden retriever, Rochester , just wants to stay close to the food.

If you love Christmas whodunits, small-town sleuths, and canine partners who always sniff out the truth, this festive double-feature brings together two fan-favorite series: Steve & Rochester from the Golden Retriever Mysteries and Kiki & Gracie from the Kiki Lowenstein Mysteries.

Larry Leavis is six-foot-six, awkward, brilliant, and used to being invisible in a room full of beautiful men on South Beach. A gifted programmer just starting his career in Miami’s buzzing tech scene, he’s more comfortable behind a keyboard than on a dance floor. Romance? That’s for other people. Larry fixes Wi-Fi, writes clean code, and keeps his crushes safely locked in his imagination. Until one night at a South Beach café-bar changes everything.

When Eastern College launches its first winter intersession program, administrator Steve Levitan is excited to host a course on Caribbean cuisine at Friar Lake Conference Center. His wife Lili is co-teaching with her friend, prominent food anthropologist Dr. Yesenia Ubeda. But before the first meal is served, threatening notes appear, old documents surface with explosive implications for US-Cuba relations, and a student with a hidden agenda is found murdered. With his golden retriever Rochester at his side, Steve must untangle a web of long-buried secrets and dangerous obsessions.

Eric and Allie share a history neither of them knows how to forget. Once, they were teenage stepbrothers thrown together by their parents’ marriage. Two boys navigating grief, rigid rules, and feelings neither was ready to name. One night changed everything. Silence followed. Then distance. Then years of pretending it never happened. Now they’re adults. Eric is disciplined, controlled, and freshly untethered after leaving the military and finishing his degree. Allie is rebuilding his life piece by piece after addiction and rehab, determined not to fail again.