Books in the Howard Drew Novels series

Hamstrung by the fallout from the pandemic and budget cuts thanks to the defund the police movement, the LAPD's elite Homicide Special Section gets caught short-handed when a North Hollywood murder involving a celebrity actor goes down. The Robbery-Homicide Division commander pulls Detective Howard Drew and his partner Amy Li from Open-Unsolved to spearhead the high-profile investigation.Temporary assignment to Homicide Special puts Howard squarely into the midst of a media firestorm when he takes the lead on the murder investigation after someone shoots to death the wife of a famous Hollywood actor outside a popular Studio City restaurant. It's been a while since Drew and his partner at Open-Unsolved have caught a fresh kill, but Howard is determined to make the most of the unexpected opportunity. But the moment he arrives at the scene, Howard quickly discovers something about the case doesn't add up. The actor gives his statement, but the evidence tells an entirely different story.As the pressure from the tenth floor of LAPD headquarters mounts, demanding a quick resolution of the case, Drew wonders why the brass chose him to lead the investigation. Then, just when he thinks he's building momentum on the case, things go sideways when an old nemesis in the command staff blind sides him. At odds with his superiors, and distracted by a simmering romance that starts to boil over in the middle of the investigation, Howard is as off balance as he's ever been. Running on instinct and his commitment to getting justice for every victim, and with everything to lose, Drew must prove himself not just by clearing the case by arrest, but by surviving it.

Hamstrung by the fallout from the pandemic and budget cuts thanks to the defund the police movement, the LAPD's elite Homicide Special Section gets caught short-handed when a North Hollywood murder involving a celebrity actor goes down. The Robbery-Homicide Division commander pulls Detective Howard Drew and his partner Amy Li from Open-Unsolved to spearhead the high-profile investigation. Temporary assignment to Homicide Special puts Howard squarely into the midst of a media firestorm when he takes the lead on the murder investigation after someone shoots to death the wife of a famous Hollywood actor outside a popular Studio City restaurant. It's been a while since Drew and his partner at Open-Unsolved have caught a fresh kill, but Howard is determined to make the most of the unexpected opportunity. But the moment he arrives at the scene, Howard quickly discovers something about the case doesn't add up. The actor gives his statement, but the evidence tells an entirely different story.As the pressure from the tenth floor of LAPD headquarters mounts, demanding a quick resolution of the case, Drew wonders why the brass chose him to lead the investigation. Then, just when he thinks he's building momentum on the case, things go sideways when an old nemesis in the command staff blind sides him. At odds with his superiors, and distracted by a simmering romance that starts to boil over in the middle of the investigation, Howard is as off balance as he's ever been. Running on instinct and his commitment to getting justice for every victim, and with everything to lose, Drew must prove himself not just by clearing the case by arrest, but by surviving it.

When a mother and her young daughter are found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in a car parked at an overlook off a Hollywood freeway, it appears they are victims of a culturally driven parent-child suicide. LAPD Detective Howard Drew faces his first real test as a new lead homicide investigator as he follows a twisted trail of clues to find the truth in his most challenging case yet.The Pendulum is the second novel featuring Detective Howard Drew in a new fast-paced police procedural series set in Los Angeles that crime fiction fans won''t want to miss.When a 3 A.M. call out sends West Bureau homicide Detective Howard Drew to an overlook above Hollywood Bowl, he finds an Asian woman and her six-year-old daughter dead inside a vehicle with a garden hose running from the exhaust pipe into a rear window. The initial evidence points to the cultural practice called oyako shinju in Japan, a ritual child-parent suicide committed after the woman was shamed by her husband''s adultery.  And as the truth emerges, it becomes more and more apparent that things may not be as they appear. Drew and his new partner, Detective Cici Ruiz, suspect they are being misled by someone very deceptive... very cunning... and very deadly who staged the scene to look like oyako shinju. As the detectives dig to uncover the truth, the pendulum of opinion swings back and forth. Was it child-parent suicide? Or was it a double-homicide staged to throw the homicide investigators off track?Crime fiction author Larry Darter has created a dark, fast-paced suspense thriller filled with stark realism that cuts to the very core of the crimes real life LAPD homicide detectives face. Once you start reading, there''s no turning back.