Cold Slice

A Working Man's Mystery #1

by L.T. Fawkes

After being released from prison, Terry Saltz, a man who has lost his mobile home, his beloved truck, and his wife, must start over again as a pizza delivery driver for Carlo's pizza place where he makes new friends and investigates the brutal murder of a fellow driver. Original.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Cozy Mystery

272 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

L. T. Fawkes books on Kindle:

Working Man Mysteries:
Cold Slice
Lights Out
Early Eight


Fillmore Chronicles:
Fillmore to the Rescue
Fillmore Saves the Day
Fillmore Rides Again

Reviews

[LJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

COLD SLICE – G+
L.T. Fawkes – 1st book
Carpenter Terry Saltz has lost his job, wife, truck, mobile home and has just gotten out of jail. When he becomes a drive for Carlo’s pizza, he finds the start of a new life with good friends. Except someone murdered one of the employees of Carlo’s. When Terry is suspected, he and his new friends decide to do some investigation on their own.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters are real, wonderful and written with great humor. You want to join these guys for breakfast. I’m definitely looking forward to his next book.

[Chuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG - What a clever, well written book. I had a friend tell me about Cold Slice and I bought it from Amazon (Kindle) - read it while on a business trip and enjoyed every second of it!!! Terry Saltz - what a stud. Worth your time - 5 stars.

[Elaine]

book 1 in the series (before "Lights Out")

[Zaya Thomson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty much exactly what I thought it would be, which is to say it was a fun pulp paperback mystery. Nothing too clever here but it was a good read. Content warning for brief homophobic slurs and some questionable opinions about women.

[Jeannine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first in a series subtitled "A Working Man's Mystery" and it rates 3.5 stars. The main character is basically a good guy with a rough upbringing and a bad marriage who goes to prison for damaging a bar during a drunken/drugged rage. While in prison he loses his marriage, his trailer, his much loved truck and his job as a carpenter. Fortunately he also loses his desire to drink and smoke pot. He gets out of prison with nothing, only one friend to take him in, and gets a job as a pizza delivery guy. At the pizza shop, he finds new friends and a new beginning and gets involved in solving the murder of a co-worker. Great characters and decent plot.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A working man, a carpenter, who has just gotten out of county jail, quickly finds himself turning his life around by getting a gig as a driver for a local pizza joint and making new friends, which turns (as it does) to investigating the murder of a fellow employee with his friends. Hijinks ensue. Lots of fun and a glimpse at a completely different side of life from my own. I’m sorry the author (who I suspect is a woman) only wrote three of these, because they are fun and funny and stand up to repeated rereading.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked this mystery. AS the mystery work starts rather late it is not a gripping who dunnit but a nice lazy look at a bunch of nice ordinary guys being nice ordinary guys. I liked it that there was no "must have M/F romance" in it as there is in most mysteries. The woman are just other members of the cast not girlfriends. I was happy just sharing with the guys.

I have now ordered the other two books in this series.

[Lenore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy read with unique characters - young single working guys. Not unique to life; they seem very real to me, but unique in terms of the genre. The mystery component was not as strong as the characters and all the many details of their lives. Would love to read another book in the series IF the mystery story were beefed up a bit.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I had my doubts at first but it didn't disappoint. Luckily I got it free from Amazon. Even though I had it pretty much figured out half way through, I couldn't out it down. Different from the usual murder mysteries that I have read.

[Roxane · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a good story, written well and kept you interested in what was going on. If you were paying attention you will have the killer picked out pretty soon after the murder which I felt happened late in the book. All in all a nice read.

[Nyki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guilty pleasure

[Libby Waterford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read, interesting characters but kind of light on the mystery.