Colton Parker is back on the case — once again hired to penetrate a tangled web of murder and corruption. Colton’s still based in Indianapolis, still fighting to make ends meet, and still striving to maintain a relationship with Cassie, his troubled teenaged daughter.
His latest client is Burger Hume, a dying millionaire with one final wish: To see the illegitimate son he’s never met.
To find the lost child, Colton must follow an increasingly dangerous path that leads from outlaw bikers in the back alleys of Indianapolis to a dishonest politician on the floor of the Indiana state Senate.
Along the way, Colton is driven to question his own values — and decide what matters most in his life — as he learns that love of money is indeed The Root of All Evil.
Former FBI agent Colton Parker just might be the badest private detective on the block. Told with a sparse, tough prose reminiscent of the late Robert Parker, Brandt Dodson just might be the author fans of the ‘Spenser’ series have been yearning for.” — Vincent Zandri, International Bestselling author of "The Innocent," "The Remains," and "Concrete Pearl."
Brandt was born and raised on the west side of Indianapolis and comes from a long line of police officers. He was formerly employed by the Indianapolis Field Office of the FBI before serving as a Lt. in the United States Naval Reserve.
He is a graduate of Ben Davis High School and Indiana Central University (now known as the University of Indianapolis) and received his doctorate in Chicago, Illinois.
Brandt is the creator of the Indianapolis-based Colton Parker series, the Chicago-based Sons of Jude series, as well as several short stories and stand-alone novels. He has had his play adapted by a dinner theatre and it opened in March of 2013.
Brandt lives in southern Indiana where he is at work on his next novel.
This detective novel was a nice change of pace from my usual contemporary women's fiction. Brandt Dodson writes a crisp, fast-paced story. His hero is easy to like, his characterizations natural and believable. I had the pleasure of meeting Brandt in person at a writer's conference this summer. His depth of law enforcement experience is impressive!
In THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL, the third book in the Colton Parker Series, Brandt Dodson engages us once again with suspense, murder, and corruption. When Colton Parker is hired to find the illegitimate son of a dying multimillionaire, he is faced with sorting through back alleys, biker gang hangouts, and the offices of a political official in order to get to the bottom of what seems to be a tangled web that has no boundaries.
Colton Parker is a modern-day gumshoe. He uses his tough exterior and dry humor to cover the pain he feels at the loss of his wife and his constant struggle to maintain a relationship with his teenage daughter. There's not a lot of flash or fancy dialogue in this series, just good old private investigative work. Though Brandt hints at Colton's feelings for his former FBI partner, Mary, there is little romance played out in the Colton Parker Series. These novels are definitely geared toward the armchair detective who wants to follow along as Parker pieces together faint clues and barely-there evidence. A great read. Especially for men who want a straight forward suspense novel without getting bogged down with the romance that most women readers prefer.
This detective book will keep you up late. Short, snappy chapters. An unpredictable ending, (I love those...yes, I guessed the wrong person.) Believable plot.
Great story. I had read the first two Colton Parker books long ago and got back to the series. This is the third book and the stories are good with a great character. I have another to read before I get back to the fourth book in this series, the author has a varied career with being in the naval reserves, the FBI, and professional podiatrist. I see him as a patient and he is a good guy to boot!
Have you ever picked up a book and within the first 5 pages you know it’s a winner? That’s the way it is with Brandt Dodson’s Root of All Evil.
Colton Parker was fired from the FBI, spent 5 years on the Chicago Police Department and now runs his own investigation firm. He has been described as “a brash, insolent, narrow-minded ex-cop” that has the “subtlety of a jackhammer in a funeral parlor.” He is hired by Berger Hume a multimillionaire who helped put Indianapolis on the map but is now a frail, dying man. Hume wants Parker to find out if a man, Miles Poole, is truly his son. If he is, he wants to meet Poole before he dies which according to doctors could be very soon.
All Parker has to do is find Poole, talk to him and convince him to have DNA testing. Piece of cake, right? No problem.
The hunt for Miles Poole alias ’Pork Chop’ is not exactly an easy one. Pork Chop is not exactly what you would call an upstanding pillar of the community and he has many enemies. Parker finds him but then there are lots of twists, turns and deaths along the way to confirming that Pork Chop is Berger Hume’s son.
This is an action-packed tale that includes bombs, shootings, back-stabbing, gangs and much more. As the investigation goes onward it becomes more and more complicated. At one point two officials stop Parker on a jog and ask for his private detective license. They inform him there was a “discrepancy” in the paperwork that was previously overlooked. This doesn’t stop Colton Parker from digging deeper and deeper to find out if Poole is truly Hume’s son and more.
Described as being "as unexpected as a bullet hole in a Brooks Brother suit," PI Colton Parker returns in this adventure with Callie and Mary aiding him in his personal life.
A dying millionaire, Berger Hume, asks Colton to find his son. Colton accepts the seemingly routine assignment but later is caught up in the city's outlaw biker scene and also crosses paths with the deceptively nice Garrett Hume, Berger's legitimate heir. The plot is as taut as a highwire, and Colton's personal life and his questions about God take up a few pages of dialogue between him and Mary Christopher, a bright, articulate and intelligent FBI agent.