Alan Bernhardt Series by Collin Wilcox
Alan Bernhardt #1
Bernhardt's Edge
Collin Wilcox
Publisher's WeeklyWilcox's latest California thriller marks the debut of actor-playwright Alan Bernhardt of San Francisco as a freelance private eye. A rehearsaland his flirtation with new cast member Pamela Brettis interrupted by a message from Hubert Dancer, head of the detective agency that gives the actor outside jobs. Accepting a supposedly brief assignment, Bernhardt leaves town to trace Betty Fields, missing from her post as art consultant to a corporation of venture capitalists. The firm has hired Dancer's agency to find Betty and her lover, Nick Ames, but after doing so and reporting back to Dancer, Bernhardt is outraged to hear that Ames has been stalked and murdered. He breaks with Dancer, going off on his own to find the fugitive again before she also is ''neutralized.'' Betty knows that her life is endangered by the real power behind her corporate employer, reclusive, amoral billionaire Daniel DuBois, who is determined to prevent her from exposing his guilty secrets. When Bernhardt catches up with Betty a second time, the professional killer makes a move that creates the story's stunning climax. This is a remarkably well-handled mystery with strong characters. Readers will want more tales of the thespian and Pamela, his new romantic lead.
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Alan Bernhardt #2
Silent Witness
Collin Wilcox
To unlock the secrets of a homicide, Bernhardt must connect with a terrified childDennis tells the police he was sleeping when his wife was killed. Connie stumbled upon a prowler, he says, and paid for the mistake with her life. The police believe his story, but this cold man’s crocodile tears cannot convince Connie’s sister, Janice. She suspects her brother-in-law of a heinous crime, and it will take an unusual investigator to prove her right.Alan Bernhardt is a theater director in San Francisco who pays his rent with the odd bit of private detective work. Searching for the man who strangled Connie, his biggest obstacle isn’t Dennis, but John—the dead woman’s seven-year-old son. He may have witnessed something crucial on the night of the murder, but this sensitive child is too frightened to speak. Coaxing words out of John will be the toughest assignment of Alan’s directing career, but not half as hard as keeping the boy alive.The second novel of Alan Bernhardt, playwright, director, and moonlighting Bay Area gumshoe--by the author of the Lt. Frank Hastings police procedurals. Bernhardt will need every ounce of his stagecraft and street-smarts to get the truth out of a scared seven-year-old boy. "Wilcox gets better and better!"--Tony Hillerman.
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Alan Bernhardt #3
Except for the Bones
Collin Wilcox
From Publishers WeeklyUsing a gripping minute-by-minute, day-by-day format, Wilcox (Silent Witness) charts the downfall of New York real estate tycoon Preston Daniels, first encountered on Cape Cod at the scene of his mistress's accidental death. College freshman Diane Cutler and her boyfriend see Daniels, her despised stepfather, carrying a body to the local landfill. After the boyfriend attempts blackmail and is badly beaten, the terrified Diane flees to San Francisco to stay with a friend, who tries to persuade PI Alan Bernhardt to take on Diane as a client and protect her. Bernhardt claims he is too busy, so his actress girlfriend Paula takes on the job. Paula saves Diane from an attacker, but darker events are in store: after the frightened girl learns of her boy friend's death, she overdoses on drugs. Swearing to find out and expose what Diane knew, Alan travels to Cape Cod to investigate. Wilcox delivers a taut, suspenseful mystery with credible dialogue and good local color. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalDetective Alan Burchardt looks into the suspicious death of a New York real estate tycoon's latest girlfriend--a death secretly witnessed by the man's estranged stepdaughter in Cape Cod.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Alan Bernhardt #4
Find Her a Grave
Collin Wilcox
To honor a dying don’s last wish, a mob lieutenant searches for hidden diamondsAfter seven years ruling his empire from prison, Don Carlo remains as powerful as ever, but his heart is beginning to fail. On the verge of death, he begs his right-hand man, Bacardo, to look after his family. Not his wife and children, the don explains, but Louise and Angela—his daughter and granddaughter from a beloved mistress who died long ago.To Louise, the don bequeaths one million dollars in diamonds, hidden in a cemetery in a tiny California town. Securing her inheritance will mean mortal danger for Louise, Bacardo, and the private investigator they hire to help them—a moonlighting director named Alan Bernhardt. Bernhardt understands the risks, but also knows that the theater and the mafia have two things in common: the understanding that a professional is only as good as his word, and that the only way to survive is to act without fear.From Publishers WeeklyIn the latest Alan Bernhardt mystery, following Except for the Bones , the San Francisco actor/director and part-time sleuth is absent for nearly the first third of the tale. By the time he comes on stage, an imprisoned mobster has died and secretly left behind some valuables to a woman named Louise, his daughter by a former mistress. The new capo de capo isn't glad to learn about this cache of jewels. Louise tells her 20-year-old daughter, Angela, that the mob may be looking for them and the legacy, which they have to dig up from its hiding place; Angela approaches Alan for help. In short order, suave Chinese killer, Brian Chin, is in on the doings as well. Wilcox, who also writes a series about a persistent San Francisco cop named Hastings, gradually establishes an authentic mobster milieu, offering the required mix of brutality and honor. The action accelerates as Alan, Angela and others trace their way through a series of betrayals and allegiances, including an abduction, but it all leads to a somewhat loosely tied ending. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsCapo Carlo Venezzio dies of a heart attack while in prison, but not before he's ordered right-hand man Tony Bacardo to see that a million dollars' worth of diamonds has been salted away for his illegitimate daughter, Louise, and her daughter, Angela. To help Louise claim the jewels, hidden in a cemetery in tiny Fowler's Landing, California, Bacardo, now swearing allegiance to another don, Benito Cella, must tread carefully; meanwhile, a mafia soldier, Fabrese, is on his trail and wants the diamonds for himself, so Bacardo hotfoots it back to New York, telling the women to recover the jewels themselves. They call in part-time p.i. Alan Bernhardt (Except for the Bones, etc.), who witnesses a double- cross--which leads to a double-kidnapping. The mafia then reenters the picture, and Bernhardt must exert last-minute heroics to avert a bloodbath. A persuasive primer on the mafia's business methods and ethics. Old pro Wilcox characterizes the mobsters so deftly that his story suffers when it switches focus to Bernhardt. Flawed but clever. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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