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Mike Travis #4

Hard Latitudes

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The fourth installment in Baron R. Birtcher's bestselling Mike Travis series begins when a botched blackmail scheme draws Mike, an ex-homicide cop, back from Hawaii to Los Angeles to the aid of his estranged brother, a man of privilege with the soul of a predator.

A seemingly arbitrary act of violence in Macau has initiated a chain of events that ripples across the Pacific, developing into a thunderstorm of murder, extortion, and betrayal half a world away. Together with Travis' friend, Snyder - a man with a checkered past of his own - Travis uncovers vile truths involving sexual slavery and insatiable personal greed that have already cut a path of vicious cruelty from the shipyards of Hong Kong to the shores of the Hawaiian islands.

As Travis unravels the disparate thread of duplicity and moral compromise, it threatens to devastate the lives of one powerful family, while Travis himself becomes a suspect in a murder that threatens to destroy his life as well.

This stylish thriller, epic in scope and atmosphere, driven by compelling characters, will rise to a climactic confrontation on the shores of a place that some call paradise.

322 pages, Hardcover

First published June 15, 2015

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About the author

Baron R. Birtcher

10 books180 followers
Baron R. Birtcher spent a number of years as a professional musician, guitarist, singer and songwriter and founded an independent record label.

His first two hardboiled mystery novels, Roadhouse Blues and Ruby Tuesday were Los Angeles Times and IMBA Best-Sellers.

Angels Fall, the third installment in the critically-acclaimed Mike Travis series, was nominated for the 2009 Left Coast Crime Award (the “Lefty”) for Best Law Enforcement/ Police Procedural novel of the year.

Rain Dogs is Mr. Birtcher’s first stand-alone novel, and a Claymore Award finalist.
He has also had the honor of serving as a judge for both the Edgar and the Shamus Awards.

Baron currently divides his time between Kona, Hawaii and Portland, Oregon.

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5 stars
24 (61%)
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9 (23%)
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3 (7%)
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for James Thane.
Author 10 books7,075 followers
February 16, 2019
Hard Latitudes is another excellent thriller from Baron R. Birtcher. At the heart of the story is Mike Travis, scion of a wealthy family who turned his back on the soulless, empty life of wealth to become a cop in L.A. After leaving the police force, Mike has moved to Hawaii and bought a yacht, which he uses to ferry tourists on trips around the islands.

It's a laid-back, stress-free life, exactly what Mike desires, until one day he gets a call from his brother Valden, who desperately needs his help back in California. Valden is a total jerk--exactly the sort of shallow, privileged, self-absorbed clown that Mike was trying to leave behind. But Valden is Mike's brother, and so against his better judgement, Mike grabs the next plane back to the mainland.

Valden is the sort of scumbag who routinely cheats on his wife, but this time it seems that someone has taken video of him in a compromising situation with a girl who is most likely under age. The people who have the video are blackmailing Valden and threatening to make the video public if he doesn't pay up. This would be a major embarrassment, which would probably cost Valden his marriage. Perhaps even more important, Valden is heavily involved in politics as a fundraiser for a congressman, who is about to be feted at a major event. If Valden's situation becomes public, it might seriously compromise the congressman as well.

The congressman is a scumbag, and Mike Travis couldn't care less about him or his fat cat friends. But he does like Valden's wife and family and is anxious to protect them from the fallout of his brother's stupid mistake. Accordingly, Mike recruits a couple of friends from his days on the force and begins an effort to track down the blackmailers and put them out of commission. The timeline is short; the odds are long, and truth to tell, his brother probably isn't worth saving, but Mike will give it his best shot and put himself at considerable risk in the process.

It's a cleverly-plotted story with an appealing protagonist who carries his own share of baggage. The book moves along swiftly, and Birtcher excels at describing the settings, both in Hawaii and in L.A. It turns out to be a complex tale with lots of unexpected twists and turns--all in all, a very good read.
1,090 reviews17 followers
March 24, 2016
The fourth entry on the Mike Travis series is just as good as the earlier books, and that is high praise indeed.
The novel begins with the protagonist looking back at incidents that began eleven years prior, and an intricate and fascinating tale it is. It starts in Macau in 1994, with an act of violence whose repercussions are felt in different far-flung parts of the world and do not, initially, involve Mike in any way.

Mike, 6’2” and a retired LAPD homicide detective, since leaving LA has been living in Hawaii, where he runs a chartering service for private scuba and luxury cruises out of Kona, on his 72’ sailing yacht, the Kehau, after running a similar operation off the Southern California coast. Mike is the son of a very wealthy man, which he tries to forget, mostly with success, nor make others aware of it. When his brother, heavily involved in the family business, calls from LA and tells Mike that his “indiscretions” have come back to haunt him in a big – and very public - - way, Mike makes immediate arrangements to return to LA to help him out (making his relationship with his significant other, Lani, even more problematical).

Along the way the author reflects on the history of both South Central LA in late April 1992, during the time of the riots, when he was still on the police force, as well as descriptions of the natural beauty of Hawaii, about which he says, e.g., “Twilight is my favorite time of day to walk the Kona waterfront. The flickering lights of the village begin to cycle on, piercing the encroaching darkness, the heat of the day leeching from the concrete and up through the soles of your sandals while cool wind drifts in off the water.” He pays tribute to LA as well, describing the sunrise as presenting a sky that is “a purple so deep that it appeared to bruise the sky.” At the same time, he also says “Every time I come back to this town, it slithers back inside me. I had never intended to be a cynic, never imagined I would feel such contempt, and especially had never wanted to lose hope. I wanted to believe in greater things, like grace, like justice, like integrity; I wantd to believe in heroes or a higher purpose.”

The narrative is interspersed from time to time with the events set into motion in Macau over a decade ago.

Mike’s efforts on behalf of his brother as a “reluctant pi” have repercussions that place both him and his brother in jeopardy, as well as Mike’s former partner on the LAPD, Hans Yamaguchi, who assists him in his efforts, which have unexpected and serious consequences. In addition to this story line, this is a tale of sexual slavery and human trafficking, not for the faint of heart I might add, with fairly frequent violence (happily, for the most part not graphic.) It is a gripping story, beautifully written, and highly recommended.
Profile Image for Delta.
1,242 reviews22 followers
December 28, 2018
I had a difficult time staying engaged with this book. Every time I started to really get into Mike's story we're interrupted by May Ling's story which, to be honest, was more interesting. But the thing that really bothered me about the book was the feeling that there were three stories told in the book and they didn't seem very coherent.

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**
Profile Image for Sheila.
Author 85 books191 followers
February 18, 2016
Eleven years later, the protagonist has a tale to tell. Oceans away, a young woman’s hopeful story falls to despair. And a man who lives on a boat in Hawaii is hiding, somewhere between his past and future, when his world starts falling apart. Hard Latitudes is a hard story of people doing wrong for all the right reasons, or right for the wrong, or both. Familial love, broken connections, sudden attractions, and the loyalties of friends... they’re all here, under the threat of meaningless folly, corruption, and breaking lives. The protagonist isn’t a hero, but he’s sometimes heroic; he isn’t a good man, but he does what he can; he isn’t wholly lovable, but he’s loved; and perhaps he’ll “learn to be content inside the light of a lesser heaven,” because this world’s assorted hells might still, in the end, hold hope.

The author blends times and places in this novel without ever leaving the reader unmoored. A clever prologue, with convincing threat and voice, invites curiosity about just where the characters will be in eleven years. Well-placed side-tales build a threat of far-off butterfly wings changing everything, but how? And the gripping voice of the protagonist draws the story on, from Hawaii to Los Angeles, from anonymity to police investigation, and from future hope to past promise. Clever hints of history are nicely incorporated, fully in tune with the protagonist’s point of view. Los Angeles past and present comes to life, and the story, like Mike Travis’ boat, is well-anchored in time and place. The writing blends beauty and threat, raising the story high above everyday crime dramas, not just in its scope, but also in language and allusion. In a world where “Everything we touch, we f.. it up, or try to kill it,” “dolphins peel[] off from the bow and head[] back toward the bay as one,” and thin smoke rises with prayer to the goddess of mercy. Sometimes it’s the trail of that thin smoke that will turn into a lifeline of hope.

Hard Latitudes is the fourth of Baron R. Birtcher’s Mike Travis series, but readers can easily pick it up without having read the others. Characters are introduced with just enough information to make them real, followed by perfect dialog and interactions that keep them real. Places are gorgeous and complete. And the story spans time while being thoroughly anchored to Mike answering duty’s immediate call. It’s a perfect blend of Hawaii’s freedom with LA’s police-patrol, and of mystery, police procedural, family drama, moral dilemma and compelling literature; highly recommended.

Disclosure: I was give a free bound galley by the publisher and I offer my honest review.
Profile Image for Rich Zahradnik.
Author 6 books113 followers
January 7, 2017
I just finished HARD LATITUDES. Actually ripped through it. Loved the book. Loved the voice. Loved the narrator, who describes scene, setting and sky while weaving in emotions throughout. Travis is a great protagonist. The ex-LA-cop now charter-boat owner in Hawaii is smart, funny and cares about the people he's trying to help, whether his own brother under threat of blackmail or the father of a child kidnapped by some serious villains. Travis is a great crime fiction hero. Can't beat the bendy twisty thrilling plot of this one.
Profile Image for Anne Moose.
Author 6 books34 followers
June 28, 2021
In my humble opinion, there is almost nothing about “Hard Latitudes” that isn’t perfect. First of all, it’s so superbly written that, while I was reading, I was constantly in awe of the author’s ability to craft a sentence, to describe a scene, to make me feel the atmosphere, feel the emotions--to become immersed in the story so completely that the reading was both vivid and effortless. In short, the writing is stunning. But Hard Latitudes also has a great and highly intelligent plot. The story (which goes between Hawaii and L.A., and involves, among other things, Mike Travis’s brother, shady businessmen, corrupt politicians, sadistic human traffickers, the victims of the traffickers, and Travis’s girlfriend, Lani) takes a number of surprising twists and turns, but remains steady, taking you for a ride that is intense and action packed, but also deeply personal and emotional.

Birtcher’s protagonist, Mike Travis, is a fascinating, multi-faceted character who can be shockingly violent in one scene, and tender and introspective the next. And yet he’s believable. I love the parts of the book in which he describes his relationship with his girlfriend, Lani, and his discomfort with his wealthy family. The writing in these sections is brilliant. Equally brilliant, and also heart-breaking, are scenes in which he describes a group of Chinese people being smuggled and brutalized inside a horrific stinking shipping container. Birtcher puts you right there. But, then, you are “right there” throughout...with a narrator/author who, in my opinion, is one of the absolute best in this genre. In short, Hard Latitudes is a wonderful, gripping book and Baron Birtcher is a fabulous writer. I’ve read a number of Birtcher’s books now, and they are all good and beautifully written, but, for me, this is Birtcher’s masterpiece. At least so far. I haven’t read all of them yet. : )
Profile Image for Alana Lee.
45 reviews7 followers
October 28, 2025
Baron R. Birtcher does something very few crime writers manage he blends the sun-baked melancholy of paradise with the moral rot underneath it. Hard Latitudes feels like getting hit by a wave you didn’t see coming. It starts calm enough Mike Travis, the ex-cop turned reluctant hero, is pulled back to the mainland to help his estranged brother but by the midpoint, you realize you’re tangled in something far darker than you signed up for.
What I loved most is Birtcher’s prose: sharp, cinematic, drenched in atmosphere. Hawaii isn’t just a setting; it’s a character with secrets of its own. The pacing builds from slow burn to roaring inferno, and the moral complexity greed, exploitation, betrayal feels all too real. It’s not just a thriller, it’s a reckoning.
Profile Image for Amber Callahan.
17 reviews2 followers
October 26, 2025
I’ve read a lot of crime fiction where the main guy is a burned-out ex-cop with demons, but Mike Travis stands apart. He’s a man trying to hold onto a code in a world where everyone’s got their hand in the till. Hard Latitudes hits hard because it doesn’t sugarcoat how greed and corruption seep into everything from family ties to government deals.
Birtcher’s pacing is deliberate, and I mean that as a compliment. He builds pressure until it’s almost unbearable. When the violence comes, it’s raw and shocking, but never gratuitous. I did find the middle a bit heavy with backstory, but by the end, I was floored. The final confrontation was one of the best I’ve read all year.
Profile Image for Blake Atwood.
18 reviews11 followers
October 26, 2025
This novel could easily be mistaken for literary fiction, it’s that layered and precise. Birtcher doesn’t just write a thriller; he writes about the moral decay that drives men to kill, betray, and lie to themselves.
The blackmail plot that draws Mike back into the fray is just the surface. Underneath, Hard Latitudes is about family and the price of loyalty. The relationship between Mike and his brother is heartbreaking in its realism two men raised under different expectations, both carrying ghosts of their choices.
Profile Image for Brielle Lawson.
8 reviews1 follower
October 26, 2025
Baron R. Birtcher has done it again. Hard Latitudes is that rare kind of thriller that manages to be both beautifully written and relentlessly propulsive. Mike Travis is a character I’ve followed from the start, and with each book, Birtcher peels back another layer of his complicated soul. In this fourth installment, we see Travis drawn back to the mainland to help his brother, a man who’s everything Mike isn’t and what unfolds is a web of deceit, violence, and moral corrosion that feels disturbingly real.
Profile Image for Lunavera Casen.
85 reviews11 followers
October 28, 2025
As someone who’s seen both sides of the badge, I appreciate when an author gets it right. Birtcher nails the mindset of a man who’s been around too much violence to still believe in clean endings. Mike Travis isn’t your typical gumshoe he’s haunted, flawed, and bone-tired of corruption—but he still runs toward the fire when others run away.
Hard Latitudes hooked me with its realism. The investigative details, the sense of moral ambiguity, the internal code Travis still clings to, it’s pitch perfect. This book doesn’t glamorize crime; it exposes the rot beneath the gloss. Brilliant stuff.
Profile Image for Megan Hollister.
22 reviews2 followers
October 28, 2025
Baron R. Birtcher writes like a jazz musician each sentence alive with rhythm, smoke, and sweat. Hard Latitudes is less a crime novel and more a fever dream about loyalty and decay. The way he threads together Los Angeles, Macau, and the Hawaiian islands gives this story a global pulse that feels urgent and dangerous.
What really struck me is the emotional undercurrent between Mike and his brother a man who embodies everything Mike walked away from. That relationship becomes the quiet heart of the storm. You can feel the tragedy brewing from page one. By the end, I was wrung out and awed.
Profile Image for Derek Calloway.
16 reviews2 followers
October 28, 2025
As someone from the islands, I rarely see Hawaii portrayed with this kind of honesty. It’s not all leis and luaus Birtcher shows the paradise and the poison. He captures the way wealth and corruption hide behind beauty, and how the sea seems to swallow secrets whole.
Mike Travis feels real, like the kind of man you’d pass at a harbor bar sunburned, wary, and carrying ghosts. Hard Latitudes is brutal and beautiful, like watching a sunset through smoke.
Profile Image for Logan Pierce.
19 reviews5 followers
October 28, 2025
If you want a thriller that moves, this one delivers. From the first gunshot to the final confrontation, it’s pure adrenaline. Birtcher balances action and emotion perfectly. There’s blackmail, sexual slavery rings, betrayal, it reads like a modern noir film with a conscience.
I docked one star only because there were a few slower sections near the middle. But man, when it takes off, it flies. Easily one of the best entries in the Mike Travis series.
Profile Image for Lindsey Morrell.
16 reviews2 followers
October 28, 2025
Baron R. Birtcher is one of those writers whose sentences make you stop and reread not because they’re confusing, but because they sting with truth. Hard Latitudes is haunting, eloquent, and brutal all at once.
The pacing is taut, the dialogue crisp, and the sense of place almost poetic. I could smell the salt in the air and feel the moral corrosion in every encounter.
By the final chapter, I sat there in silence. This isn’t just another detective story, it’s modern noir with a beating heart.
Profile Image for Ricki.
1,397 reviews14 followers
May 8, 2023
This seemed like three stories coming together into one. The story Mike Travis former cop now living in Hawaii, the story of his brother Valden Van de Groot-rich investor helming the family business and May who was enslaved by the Triad at 13.

It seems to go back and forth between the three and causes the story to be fragmented.
213 reviews7 followers
June 21, 2017
I did not really like this book.It was a lot of doom and gloom,without not much hope.It had a lot of characters that you want to hate ane even the hero was not the greatest and all of this with way to much cursing.
Profile Image for J. Ewbank.
Author 4 books37 followers
May 20, 2015
This book by Birtcher has about all you would want. The characters are sketched out well and are belilevable. The plot certainly has its twists and turns which continue to surprise you. It seems that no longer than one thing is settled another part of the same problem raises its ugly head. Well done.

Received this book from Goodreads and am happy that I did.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the Isms" "Wesleyl's Wars" and "To Whom It May Concern"
Profile Image for Alice.
108 reviews
May 21, 2015

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads . I enjoyed reading this book .I will be looking for more books from the author in the future , Great book !!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

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