The Kidnapped Corpse

Titan Duplantier #2

by Daniel A. Adams

When Titan Duplantier arrives in New York City from Phoenix, Arizona, the first thing he does is change his name to Titus Dufrain and the second is to shoot it out with four bank robbers who arrive at the bank as he is withdrawing cash to pay for his breakfast. ‘Titus’ has joined the New York Police Department’s Fifth Precinct homicide unit because someone seems to be killing undercover officers; four have died over two years but IAD investigations turned up no evidence the cases were related. But within two days of arriving in New York, Titus has evidence that shows the cases are related and that he needs to dig deeper. No one but his detective friend, Ugo, knows he is there to investigate the four deaths and he and his partner, Star, help Titus with the investigations. Star and Titus begin to fall in love but it is complicated by her ten-year old daughter, Cheyenne, and the fact her husband, a Special Forces soldier, has been missing in Afghanistan for two years and with each day that passes the chances of him returning home grow smaller and smaller. Cheyenne wants her dad to come home but she begins to forge a bond with Titus which makes her vulnerable if Titus and Star don’t stay together. Meanwhile, Titus has to work a full caseload of murders that he must solve. Within a few weeks, he manages to solve two cop killer cases and investigate two of the four suspicious undercover officer murders to the point he knows enough to conclude all four dead undercover officers were friends or associates of Ugo and Star. Once he determines that, he asks them what undercover work they had done to anger someone to take revenge on them. As it turns out, they shut down a Columbian cocaine distribution ring run by ‘Culio’ that cost him $80 million. Titus meets a deep undercover FBI agent in Culio’s cartel who tells him Culio isn’t smart enough to make four murders look like natural deaths and that Culio hired a criminal mastermind named Tim to plan and execute the four dead officers and Ugo and Star. The deep cover FBI agent takes a great risk and gets Titus an address for Tim in New York City. With his partner, Leo, Titus goes to the building which is boarded up and empty. But in an empty parking lot in back of the building, they find a sedan parked near the back door of the building. The call in and run the plates which come back as nonexistent. When they find the back door ajar, they slip inside and check out the first floor but as they approach a door, they hear someone moving on the other side. With guns drawn, they charge into the next room.

406 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 14, 2018

About the author

After graduating from Arizona State University with degrees in Zoology and Accounting, Mr. Adams joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation where, as a Special Agent, he investigated general crimes such as bank robberies, kidnappings and extortions as well as specializing in complex financial crimes as a forensic accountant. Mr. Adams went on to work for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as an investigator where he worked bank fraud and embezzlement cases. He has been a licensed commercial and residential contractor and built and developed many housing units. As a lark, he signed on with a small Hollywood literary agency where he worked as a literary agent for many years. While working as an agent, he wrote several scripts and the third one was made into a movie called SECOND CHANCES. Since then he has written, directed and produced a number of award-winning shorts and several feature films. Mr. Adams decided to turn several of his scripts into novels and has six of them on Amazon, including the best-seller, FIRST LADY DOWN.

Reviews

[Masami Yamamoto · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's the first book, in 4 part series. With the Troy and Amber Barclay series, Duplantier Book 2 and 3 will intertwine to complete the story.
So far, it is inyeresting. The detective, Duplantier, is interesting. The book is well paced and moves along quickly.