Years ago, homicide detective Frank Pavlicek left the NYPD under less than ideal circumstances. Now the divorced father of a teenage daughter, he works as a private investigator in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he indulges his passion for falconry and savors the thrill of the hunt. When her twin sister, Cartwright, disappears, Cassidy Drummond can't help wondering if her father, a congressman known as much for his philandering as for his politics, has something to do with it. Desperate and deeply frightened, she turns to Frank Pavlicek for help. But, despite a long list of possible culprits-and the fact that Cartwright's car has been found with blood on the seats-Frank isn't convinced it's foul play. Soon the falconer is following a treacherous trail of family secrets and sinister scandals to the most dangerous discovery of all: the truth.

"These events, it was said, were often precipitated by the distant screaming of a hawk or the hooting of an owl." An odd situation turns deadly serious for private investigator and falconer Frank Pavlicek when a prominent resident of a renovated Manhattan apartment building accuses the building's eccentric developer, with whom she and other apartment owners are embroiled in a lawsuit, of hiring someone with a bird of prey to hunt down their pets. The pets are definitely missing. The accuser claims to have found incriminating evidence while witnesses have spotted a specter-like figure prowling Central Park at night carrying a giant owl. Returning to some of his former NYPD haunts to investigate with the help of his daughter and partner Nicole, sidekick Jake Toronto, and tough-nosed New York PI Darla Barnes, Frank soon discovers more is at stake than any of them imagine. Chasing what appears to be a mysterious falconer, they stumble upon an anonymous, half-dead child. "Fast-paced, twisty, and complex." -- BOOKLIST

Frank Pavlicek and his daughter Nicole receive an urgent message from their friend and fellow falconer, Jake Toronto, about "a death in the family." For Toronto, his birds are his family. The death in question turns out to be the murder of his prize peregrine falcon, Jazzman. Toronto worries that a vivacious female chef he helped ease out of a job is the culprit and he may have done the wrong thing by both the woman and her employer. Was Jazzman murdered for love? "Straka offers us a modern hero, who shows us that dirt roads can indeed be mean streets. A pleasure to recommend . . ." --KATE'S MYSTERY BOOKS

An expert falconer is shot in the back in the wilds of West Virginia. The police believe he was the victim of a hunting accident but PI Frank Pavlicek, a falconer himself, isn’t buying the story. Beatings, bombings, warnings from the FBI, and the arrest of his best friend on trumped-up charges only strengthen Pavlicek’s resolve to follow a bloody trail of lies and corpses that leads to a chilling, terrorist conspiracy.

“...Dragonflies nails the sweet spot where science fiction meets thriller. The technology seems all too real and the story all too plausible...Straka's dreamed up a helluva team for a helluva series. What a ride!” – John Gilstrap, New York Times bestselling-author of the Jonathan Grave thriller series“The engaging mix of genres (Sci-Fi, Mystery, Thriller), the protagonist (a confident and strong female).... allowed me to escape into a world that I have always been interested in, while mixing in mysterious government projects, crime, conspiracy, and perhaps a hint of a future romance….a skillfully crafted plotline, suspenseful build-up and a climatic cliffhanger.... you can guarantee I’ll be impatiently waiting to read the second in the series.”– NetGalley Devours Reviews