Down to Zero: A Detective Doyle Carrick Novella

Detective Doyle Carrick

by Jon McGoran

A new short story by Jon McGoran featuring Philadelphia Detective Doyle Carrick, star of Drift, Deadout, and Dust Up!When a beekeeper removing hives from an inner city warehouse is greeted with gunfire, Detective Doyle Carrick is called in to help aging mentor Jack Conroy catch the shooters. Although a previous case involving genetically modified bees has made Doyle the closest thing to a bee expert the Philly PD has, it’s a subject he wants nothing to do with. But Doyle owes Jack plenty of favors. Soon, the pair are clashing with foreign agents, corporate security agents, and lowlife thugs while tracking the mysterious bees across the city. As they work to figure out why these bees are worth killing over before the shooters can strike again, Doyle finds himself racing against a clock he could never have imagined."Readers who enjoy Michael Crichton...will find much to enjoy here." --Booklist on DriftAt the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

86 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 5, 2016

About the author

Jon McGoran is the author of ten novels, including Spliced, Splintered and Spiked, a trilogy of near-future YA science fiction thrillers from Holiday House Books.Spliced was named to the ALA’s Library Information Technology Association (LITA) inaugural 2018 LITA Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction Notable Lists and was also named one of the American Bookseller’s Association’s 2017 ABC Best Books for Young Readers. The sequel, Splintered, comes out May 2019. His other books include the acclaimed ecological thrillers Drift, Deadout, and Dust Up, from Tor/Forge Books, and The Dead Ring, based on the hit TV show, The Blacklist. Writing as D. H. Dublin, he is the author of the forensic thrillers Body Trace, Blood Poison and Freezer Burn, from Penguin Books. His short fiction includes stories in the recent anthologies Hardboiled Horror and Joe Ledger: Unstoppable, as well as the novella “After Effects,” from Amazon StoryFront; Bad Debt, which received an honorable mention in Best American Mystery Stories 2014; and stories in a variety of other anthologies. He is a founding member of the Philadelphia Liars Club, a group of published authors dedicated to writers helping writers. When not writing novels and short fiction, McGoran works as a freelance writer and developmental editor and co-host of the writing podcast The Liars Club Oddcast. Find him on Twitter at @JonMcGoran, facebook.com/jonmcgoran/ or at www.jonmcgoran.com. Or visit www.spliced.world and splice yourself!

Reviews

[Marsha Hubbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jon McGoran's novella, "Down to Zero," again takes us into the world of Philidelphia Detective Doyle Carack and ecoterrorism. Through no wish of his own, Carack has become a bit of a bee expert at the Philly PD.

While McGoran is good at keeping us in suspense, he's also good at creating the "what ifs" we live with in today's world. A thoroughly enjoyable and eye-opening read as we wait for his next book.

[Tomasz · Rating 3 out of 5]

For once it's not Doyle Carrick who's the grumpy douchebag in this series, which immediately goes to improve my rating. A crisp-ish tale of bees and industrial espionage, without "geemoh bad" written all over it in electric orange (another plus), but with a somewhat tired subplot of "the last day before retirement". Yeah, I saw Lethal Weapon too. Third plus is the body count of zero. So, at 3.5 stars, would that be the strongest instalment in the adventures of Doyle Carrick? Hopefully not!
EDIT: Well, the actual body count is 1, but the corpse is not part of the plot, so it doesn't count :)

[John Langan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some more good shit from McGoran... a nice, short story reminder of how ornery and cool Doyle Carrick really is. Can't wait to jump right into "Dust Up"!