Dead Ringer

by Bill Bernico

I was with Franklin Reeger the day he died. That is, I was supposed to be with him. I was actually fifty feet away when a .44 magnum slug removed his face. My success ratio as a bodyguard was on the downswing and a dead client was never good for business.

Matt is hired to bodyguard a material witness in a mob murder case, but the job doesn't go exactly as planned. So far, the score is Mob-1, Matt-0 but the day's not over yet.

The Cooper Collection consists of 71 stories (so far). These are the stories you'll find in this volume:

01) It's In The Bag
02) Petty Crimes
03) November Child
04) Welcome, Matt
05) The Reunion
06) Cold Cash
07) The Mother Goose Murders
08) The Condiment Killer
09) A Million To One
10) Little Matt
11) Find Her
12) Hard Bargain
13) The Case Of The Plates
14) Dead Ringer
15) The Stickup
16) You Can Bank On It
17) The Last Stop
18) Violence Is Golden
19) Surprise Package
20) The Big Sweep
21) The Home Sweet Homeless Murders
22) Guilty As Charged
23) All In The Families
24) Paper, Rock, Scissors
25) The Other Matt Cooper
26) Hit And Run
27) Officer Down
28) Double Trouble
29) Track Record
30) Petty Crimes
31) Love Finds Matt Cooper
32) The Plunge
33) Concrete And Clay
34) Top Of The World
35) 'Til Death Do Us Part
36) Not On Your Life
37) One Bad Apple
38) Even In The Best Of Homes
39) Sgt. Cooper's Lonely Hearts Club Frame
40) The Clay Cooper Cop Killer Caper
41) Beatlemaniac
42) End Of An Era
43) Cooper Generations
44) The Cooper Back-Story
45) Clay Cooper, Panhandler
46) Cooper And Partner
47) Mutiny On A Bounty
48) Witness Protection
49) Justice Delayed
50) Two For One
51) He Put The 'ick' In Buick
52) Revenge Never Expires
53) Head Shot
54) A Passage From The Bible
55) Come Fly With Me
56) If Dogs Could Talk
57) Trapped Like A Rat
58) Paydirt
59) Take The Money And Run
60) Fresh-Faced Kid
61) You Ought To Be In Pictures
62) Noel
63) Classified Iinformation
64) Heart Condition
65) Reese's Peace
66) The Best Offense
67) Jack The Stripper
68) Room For One Less
69) The Glowing Corpse
70) All The Write Moves
71) Dead Letter

8 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 12, 2012

About the author

Author of more than two hundred short stories including 154 stories featuring five generations of his Los Angeles detective family, The Coopers.

He lives on the shores of Lake Michigan, in Cleveland, Wisconsin with his wife, Kathie.

Reviews

[Carolyn Injoy]

I received a complimentary Kindle copy of Dead Ringer, A Cooper Story by Bill Bernico in an Amazon promotion.

That did not change my opinion for this review. I gave this short story four stars.

The initially unidentified protagonist was a bodyguard for Franklin Reeger. He learned that a dead client was not good for business.

"I was with Franklin Reeger the day he died. That is, I was supposed to be with him. I was actually fifty feet away when a .44 magnum slug removed his face."

Link to purchase: https://www.amazon.com/Cooper-Collect...