Flat Spin: A Cordell Logan Mystery, Book 1

by David Freed, Ray Porter (Narrator)

Flat Spin is the first installment in David Freed’s acclaimed thriller series featuring Cordell Logan, a sardonic pilot with dwindling savings and a shadowy past.

Flying out of California’s sunny Rancho Bonita, Cordell Logan is a flight instructor and aspiring Buddhist whose attempt at a quiet(er) life is shattered when his ex-wife Savannah arrives on his doorstep. Her new husband—and Logan’s former comrade-in-arms—Arlo Echevarria, has been murdered and she needs his help.

Logan and Echevarria used to be members of a top-secret military assassination team known as Alpha. Savannah begs him to tell the police what he knows in order to help them solve the murder, but sharing that sort of information raises both ethical and practical concerns. After an attempt on Logan’s own life it becomes clear that this goes deeper than he thought, and that solving the murder himself may be the only way to ensure his—and Savannah’s—safety.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Freed brings his own experience to bare in this brilliant binge-worthy mystery perfect for fans of Robert B. Parker and Robert Rotstein.

Audible Audio

Published October 24, 2023

About the author

David was born on an Air Force base in the Deep South, grew up the son of a cop along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, and decided to give writing a shot soon after realizing that his grade point average would never get him into medical school. As an investigative journalist, most notably with the Los Angeles Times, he chronicled affairs of state, all manner of catastrophes, and the activities of the US military, including Operation Desert Storm. He spent myriad hours hunting for smoking guns in dusty archives, meeting confidential sources in bars and parking garages, and digging through trash cans long after midnight. Along the way, he shared in a Pulitzer Prize and won a few other shiny awards that occupy a box in his attic. He later became a Hollywood screenwriter paid to pen mostly action movies that were rarely produced, and, later still, an asset working with the U.S. intelligence community. David has been a licensed pilot for more than 30 years. He is a contributing editor at Air & Space Smithsonian magazine, a special assistant professor of journalism at Colorado State University, and teaches creative writing at Harvard's Extension School.