by D.P. Lyle

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a signed copy of Tallyman by DP Lyle and a link to purchase it from Amazon.

One-year-old Harper McCoy was purchased from her Cherokee alcoholic mother for a few hundred dollars and a bottle of whiskey by a gypsy-like group. Around the same time, Bobby Cain, abandoned in a Houston train station at two-months of age, was snatched up by the same itinerate band. They fell under the tutelage of a couple they called Uncle Al and Aunt Dixie and from these two and the other members of the clan learned to hunt, fish, and live off the land. And more. Harper became a scam artist, a pickpocket, and a master at manipulation. Bobby became an expert in second-story thefts and with a knife, where he became Bobby Blade, the knife-throwing star of the shows the group put on the raise money as they traveled from small town to small town. Ultimately, the FBI took down the sixty-strong group for their many crimes that crossed several state lines. Cain, twelve, and Harper, thirteen, placed in protective housing and then adopted, became separated, garnered their new last names, and disappeared from each other’s lives for fifteen years.

After high school, Harper joined the US Navy, moved into Naval Intelligence, and ultimately the CIA where she ran black ops. Cain joined the US Army where his special skills of getting into and out of any situation without detection and his expertise with a knife led him to Ranger School and then special stints with the Navy Seals and Delta Force. His training complete, he became the point of the spear for stealthy assassinations throughout the Middle East. IED makers beware.

Fate brought the pair together for a clandestine op in Afghanistan. After completing the mission, Cain learns of the murder of his adoptive parents at their home in Tyler, Texas. Cain and Harper immediately return to the US, where they avenge the murder. In Juarez, middle of the night, in and out, done.

Leaving the military behind, they embarked on a career as hired fixers, determined to use the skills acquired during their gypsy upbringing and their military training to fix the unfixable.

In Tallyman, Sonny Coleman, a beloved professor at a small college in rural Tennessee, is gunned down while on an evening run. That he is the son of Erin Coleman, the US Ambassador to NATO, ramps up the investigation. The vengeful mother brings Cain and Harper to the case to assure that the killer is caught and “neutralized,” an endeavor that fits their skill sets.

To enter to win a signed copy of Tallyman, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “tallyman,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen September 3, 2022. U.S. residents only, and you must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via email please include your mailing address in case you win–it will be deleted after the contest. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.

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DP Lyle, MD is the Amazon #1 Bestselling; Macavity and Benjamin Franklin Silver Award winning; and Edgar (2), Shamus, Agatha, Anthony, Scribe, USA Today Best Book Award (2), and Foreward INDIES Book of the Year nominated author of 22 books, both non-fiction and fiction, including the SAMANTHA CODY, DUB WALKER, JAKE LONGLY, and CAIN/HARPER thriller series, and the ROYAL PAINS media tie-in novels. His essay on Jules Verne’s THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND appears in THRILLERS: 100 MUST READS and his short story “Even Steven” in ITW’s anthology THRILLER 3: LOVE IS MURDER. He served as Editor for the Southern California Writers Association’s short story anthology, IT’S ALL IN THE STORY as well as contributing the story “Splash.” His short stories “Bottom Line” appears in th Sherlock Holmes inspired anthology FOR THE SAKE OF THE GAME and “Tonic” can be found in the anthology NOTHING GOOD HAPPENS AFTER MIDNIGHT.

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