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In juvenile court, we get some wonderful excuses from kids as to why they missed court or didn't meet with their probation officer.  One of my recent favorites.:



"Well, see, it was raining, and I didn't have no umbrella or nothing ."



And yes, I berated his probation officer for setting up drug counseling, psych counseling, and job training but forgetting the brolly.

Please excuse my long absence, it's been due a combination of busy-ness, laziness, and lack of worthwhile stuff to write about. I'm still busy and lazy, but I realized that a lack of worthwhile stuff to write about has never stopped me in the past.



Now, where was I?  Ah yes, a dearth of death... especially over the 4th of July, well, you'd think that's good every which way. Right?



Not so.



Picture a group of young people interested in law enforcement, wanting to be DAs and cops, or at...

On my ride out last week, the first call was a low priority, a request to deal with a balloon.  Not a hot-air balloon, but a regular one. A popped one.



A resident had found it in a patch of scrub near his home. It wasn't the balloon itself that bothered him, more the powder spilling from it.  Another unit got there before we did, a rookie, and this is the conversation that ensued between him and my officer, AJ:



AJ:  What does it look like?

Charlie:  Errr, a balloon.

´¡´³:Ìý...

Today is a day I never dreamed I'd see, and I'm excited to announce the release of my second mystery novel, THE CRYPT THIEF.






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It was quiet all night.  A may evening when the cops in Charlie Sector and I should have been wearing short sleeves. Instead, the car's heater was on and the cold wind seemed to have swept people from the streets.



Even at 12th and Chicon, where the dealers and buyers meet for huddled sales conferences, where the girls looking for Johns hang off the sidewalk in the hope of business, even on this busiest of east Austin corners, all was quiet.



We set up in an alley and saw little more tha...

Yep, you read that right - Thank God It's Monday.



I mean, seriously, last week was utterly insane (West explosion, Boston manhunt, DA DWI just for starters) so I, for one, am glad to move on to a fresh week.



Note, please, that all are topics of too great an import or too close to home for me to scribble about, hence the protracted silence.



In good news this weekend, Reese Witherspoon got arrested (kidding, kidding). I've always liked that name though, 'Witherspoon.' Think about etymology,...

I've been quiet here for a while, partly because it happened again, and I didn't know what to say about it.



.



Again, I don't really know what to say and so don't plan to talk about it - for one thing, I don't know any more than has been reported in the media.



So let's move on, shall we?



On a recent ride-along I got to see a wonderful example of efficient law enforcement in action. Here's what happened: a driver allegedly caused an accident in which people...

Every now and again I will recommend a book to you, but very rarely will I do a full book review. Mostly that's because I'm short on time and this isn't a book-review blog.



Today is different.



The book is THREE GRAVES FULL by Jamie Mason. For ease of reading, I'll divide this review into three sections: (1) story summary, (2) my review (3) disclaimer (I know that's not normal, but read on and you'll see).



Before I begin, I'll let you know that this is one book that you can judge by its cov...

Did you know that I don't wear a bullet-proof vest when I ride out with the cops? Have I mentioned that? Well, it's true.



So what, right? It's not like I do anything dangerous out there, even though I've been riding shotgun in Charlie Sector for over a year now (I say "shotgun" because they don't let me drive and I know where the button is that releases the shotgun between the driver and passenger seats. No, I won't tell you which button it is).



Last week, , though, we had a warrant service...

I know what you're thinking, but I'm not about to provide you with material to blackmail me. No, this is about an odd connection that sprang up out of the blue. Well, red.



See, this man emailed me. He's from Argentina but lives in Canada and he'd read The Bookseller and liked it. His name is


Alex Waterhouse-Hayward and he's a . A seriously good photographer who's taken pics of all kinds of remarkable people.



And now some unremarkable ones (me).



See, Alex cam...