David Berardelli

Ralph Deacon has been arrested and charged with the violent murder of a local Orlando stripper. Although the evidence against him is meager at best, he knows he must solve this case to clear his name. Two Orlando cops have been assigned to the case, but although they have the latest technology at their fingertips, Deacon knows he has something much better--the beautiful, mysterious Mike, who has helped him on countless other cases and has vowed never to ever let him down.

When a young woman who has been dead for twenty years walks into a crowded bar, Bill Nathan experiences a mental meltdown. Having had a serious relationship with this woman, he risks his life and well-being while trying to find her again. When he discovers the truth about her death, he enters a dimension that takes him to a strange world of darkness and death.

Owen Roth's life has come to a screeching halt. His beloved wife Morgan, victim of a highway accident, has been in a coma for three months, and her condition has not changed. Owen no longer has the will to live. He decides to end the life of the man responsible for his wife's coma, and then put an end to his own life. One night, he drives to the guilty man's luxury apartment building. However, just moments before he can commit the murder, a stray dog appears. Owen immediately realizes the fruitlessness of his scheme and decides to re-evaluate his thinking. Reluctant to leave the dog, Owen takes the animal with him. From that point on, the dog becomes his center of attention. His new canine companion has somehow managed to lift his spirits as well as his outlook. Owen believes that their encounter was not as random as he first suspected. And when his wife's condition takes an unexpected turn, everything that has taken place since the dog has entered his life becomes clear.

When Frank Langley learns that a childhood nuisance has died, he makes the mistake of driving to the cemetery to look at the grave. The next day, he hears a voice in his kitchen and realizes that the voice belongs to the man he visited the previous day. From that day on, he is teased and tormented relentlessly. He struggles to discover some way of dealing with this, but when the demon almost gets him killed, Frank realizes that he must find some way of sending the demon back to Hell.

Arthur Sills meets a beautiful, mysterious woman and soon finds himself helplessly captivated. However, it isn't very long at all before he realizes that there is something about her that doesn't feel right. Before he can find out what is so bizarre about her, he discovers that he is suffering from sudden blackouts, and learns that he has been doing things he simply cannot remember.He soon finds that he is directly involved in a murder and, although he suspects this mysterious woman is somehow responsible, fears that he has no idea how to prove his innocence. And when he is suddenly being stalked by small groups of large men in suits, he realizes that if he doesn't find some way out of whatever nightmare he has been pulled into, he will soon be dead.

In this latest instalment in The Funny Detective series, Ralph Deacon once again enlists the aid of his faithful partner, the beautiful and very dead Mike, to find out why the niece of his friend Neil Haversack, Chief of Detectives in the Orlando Police Department, was the recent victim of a kidnapping attempt. During the investigation, Deacon himself is kidnapped, and soon finds that the case has taken an irreversible turn.

Someone is trying to kill Ralph Deacon, and it looks like the people involved are in the Orlando Mob. After some investigation, Deacon finds out that Giuseppe "Papa Joe" Raguzzo, the Mob's boss, has issued no such order, and that someone among the ranks, perhaps one of Papa Joe's closest associates, is attempting to take over. Papa Joe soon realizes Deacon is the only man he can trust, and hires him to find out who is trying to sabotage the Organization. However, Deacon is much too busy trying to survive, and might not be able to help Papa Joe. Deacon has one valuable ally: a beautiful angel named Mike, who refuses to let anything happen to him. But will Mike be able to help him in this case, when dozens in the Raguzzo Organization might be after him?

Fourteen-year-old Tabby Kendrick believes she sees a mugging and possible kidnapping. Unable to get satisfaction from the local police department, she seeks out the help of Private Investigator Ralph Deacon. Deacon, with the help of his dead buddy Mike, soon finds himself embroiled in a complex puzzle involving Kissimmee's Hispanic mob, the South American drug pipeline, a murder, and an extortion operation involving a popular exotic dancer.

John Callen, an Orlando businessman, has flown to Pittsburgh to see an old Army buddy who lives in Bern, Ohio, a small town just two hours away. The two served in Iraq fifteen years earlier, and John hasn't seen his friend since Buster was shipped home after losing a leg from an IED.The reunion starts off well, but turns into a nightmare when John, after shopping in town, returns to Buster's home to find his old friend dead from a fall down the stairs. However, John suspects that Buster's accident might not have happened the way it initially appeared. After some investigation, John discovers that his beloved friend has become the victim of a murder.

Ralph Deacon is back at it, this time to do a small favor for his ex-wife, which should take him less than an hour. But he soon finds himself in the middle of murder, kidnapping, drug smuggling, and a brand-new escort service starting up in the Orlando area. Can he handle this tiny matter on his own? Or will he once again need help from his mysterious friend Mike?

Aaron Grill suffers terrible nightmares. When his wife left him for another man, he turned to the bottle and lost his job, his lifestyle and his self-respect. One evening, he is viciously attacked, loses consciousness, and nearly dies. While unconscious, he experiences a hallucination in which a beautiful young woman appears and offers to rid him of his nightmares. When he regains consciousness, he remembers nothing, but when the woman visits him that same night to repeat her offer, he fears he has suffered a concussion and is imagining her. The woman convinces him she is real and that if he accepts her offer, he will no longer suffer nightmares. He is reluctant, but in desperation accepts her offer.As the days progress, he remembers nothing of the woman and soon realizes that he no longer suffers nightmares. He also discovers many other things in his life have changed. Bad luck vanishes. Good fortune has become his constant companion.However, when he meets the woman of his dreams, his good fortune abruptly vanishes. He senses that he has somehow become a pawn of evil and fears that whatever was done to cause these changes in his life will lead to his certain death.

Hank Lee, a field representative for a large construction corporation in Orlando, Florida, is having a drink in a bar one night when he spots a woman who reminds him of someone he'd loved seven years earlier and foolishly let slip through his fingers. Before he can find out if it is truly her, the chain of events quickly turns chaotic, and Hank fears the woman of his dreams could be in grave danger. As he pursues the matter, he realizes he just might be right.Discovering Sally Burns has married one of the richest men in the state, Hank confronts the man with his suspicions about Sally's situation and bears the brunt of the software king's wrath. Suddenly Hank finds himself in danger too, targeted by mobsters. As he searches for the mysterious source of all this trouble, he discovers that corporate politics can be murder - literally. Behind the workings of an international company merger lies a web of greed, deceit, corruption, and revenge ... all which could ultimately lead to death.

Ralph Deacon, a wise-cracking, small-time detective running a tiny office in downtown Orlando, Florida, is hired to find a deadbeat husband. In the process, he encounters some rough characters associated with the Orlando Mob and a mysterious young woman who comes to his aid during odd moments to help him out of tricky situations.