An Unrefusable Request

by Percy Spurlark Parker

Big Bull Benson, the hotel and bar owner who first appeared in Spurlark's novel GOOD GIRLS DON'T GET MURDERED, returns in a brand-new novella.Mob boss Troy Calini doesn't exactly have the best reputation in Chicago, but when his own daughter suspects him of killing her boyfriend Calini is determined to prove to her that his hands are clean.Enter Big Bull Benson. Although Bull and Calini haven't always seen eye-to-eye, Calini is convinced that Benson can use his skills and connections to find out who really committed the crime.Benson isn't too thrilled at the prospect of investigating the case. He'd much rather be back at the hotel he won in a poker game. Still, it's not a smart idea to say no to a crime boss. Before you can say "whacked," Benson finds himself on the streets and following clues.It isn't long before Benson realizes that this isn't just a typical carjacking (as the police suspect) or even a mob hit. Instead, the case will take him to suburbia where he soon discovers that every family hides a dark secret. And, sometimes, those secrets can be deadly.

34 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 17, 2011

About the author

Percy Spurlark Parker has been a published author since 1972 when Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine published his short story, Block Party. It was also Parker's first experience with looking at his work through an editor's eyes, since he'd entitled the story, The Oldest House on the Block. He has had a number of other stories published in Queen, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, The Strand, Woman's World, several anthologies and a few publications that are no longer with us notably Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine and Espionage Magazine. His novel credit thus far are, Good Girls Don't Get Murdered (Scribners) and The Good Looking Dead Guy (PublishAmerica)

Parker has been a member of the Mystery Writers of America for over forty years. He has servered as its Mid-West Chapter president and represented the organization on various writing panels. He has also been a member of the Private Eye Writers of America since its inception.

He and his wife, Shirley, said good-bye to the ice and snow of Chicago back in 1996 for the sunny skies of Las Vegas. Now retired from the nine to five grind, Parker devotes most of his time to his writing.