Runt: A Riveting Crime Mystery

by Michael Golvach, Becky Stephens (editor)

In every police officer’s career, a time comes to take drastic measures—but how far is too far?

Payden Beck has hit rock bottom before, and in his new precinct he’s the omega dog again, put in a position that can only mean his end. A woman from his past risks her safety to help him, but she has her own score to settle. Can he trust her? More importantly, can he save himself while avenging her?

EVOLVED PUBLISHING PRESENTS the fifth novel in the multiple-award-winning “Payden Beck Crime Thriller” series of noir crime thrillers.

317 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 18, 2024

About the author

Michael Golvach a freelance writer, living in Grayslake, Illinois. He is a child of a non-digital age, an award winning author of several books, screenplays, and many short stories.

Reviews

[Lex Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Golvach’s latest novel, Runt, follows a series of four noir crime thrillers starring the enigmatic lead character, Payden Beck, a police department detective with the intuitive sense of a Sherlock Holmes and the moral instincts of a cat, who is independent in the extreme, but capable of forming deep personal relations and holding long-standing grudges. Now, a woman from Payden’s past reappears to help him out of a sticky predicament, but she has an agenda that could create even more trouble for him. The question is, can he trust her, or will helping her bring him down?

I “met” Michael Golvach years ago through his paranormal / horror stories and novels that captured my attention as only the well-known greats in the genre had to date. His shift to the detective crime thriller was a pleasant surprise as I got into the first book, 10-30, and recognized the writing style that defined his previous books. Golvach writes with a significant degree of verisimilitude, a sense of reality that I find essential to any story. His characters are so true to life that readers will likely be able to relate them to people they know or have heard about. Golvach's ability to weave characters of varied backgrounds, social deficits, and attributes, with an in-depth knowledge of police/detective procedures, and an uncanny sense of psychological disposition for each character, is astonishing.

Each book in the series is an exciting stand-alone novel that provides a decisive conclusion without a steep cliffhanger, simultaneously bringing the story to a satisfactory conclusion. Runt is no different—a sweet conclusion with the unwritten caveat that there may be more to come.