An Indian Summer Murder - A Novel

About the Book

AN INDIAN SUMMER MURDER is the story of a Detroit Native American casino matriarch’s brutal rape and murder after the inception of the city´s controversial new legalized gaming.  All fingers point to the victim’s fiancé Steven Irby, a master chef in the casino’s most exquisite restaurant, in whose apartment she was killed, and who is police suspect number one.  While out on bail amid his protests of innocence, he hires a savvy, attractive young private investigator named Valerie Atha to uncover the truth.  After a bit of investigation, Valerie takes the case in another direction when she finds unusual events taking place within the casino in which the murder victim was part owner, along with cover-ups and police corruption.  Was the victim planning to expose someone?  If so, was it her fiancé, a stranger or someone…closer?

AN INDIAN SUMMER MURDER serves as an introductory anecdote for Valerie Atha, a Canadian-born Cherokee Indian detective who came to the United States with her baseball player husband, who was murdered himself shortly after their arrival.  It is set in Detroit, a city still groping with the transformation of legalized gaming.  

Character Description

Valerie Atha is a Michigan-licensed, Detroit-based private investigator and a stalwart.  A very comely, voluptuous woman of twenty-nine, she is from Ontario, Canada, where she was a bunco squad detective and evidence technician in Windsor before relocating to Michigan.  She was a homicide detective with the Detroit Police before a brief tenure as a federal agent.  Her late husband Marshall was an outfielder for the Toronto Blue Jays and had just signed a lucrative contract with the Detroit Tigers when he was inexplicably murdered.  After a year of near-insanity, she decided to go private; it was something Marshall had always encouraged her to do.  Valerie has a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice, speaks fluent French and Inuit.  She is an excellent lip-reader and loves modeling, weight training, dancing and martial arts.  The latter, she masters in both Aikido and Jeet Kune Do.

A very chic and stylish dresser, she firmly believes in her own adage of: “Dress with sexiness but sophistication.”  Her nickname is Pocahontas, and because of her penchant for history, she specializes in unsolved historical cases.

About the Author

Shawn Geeter is a freelance writer who lives in Oak Park, Michigan with his wife and two children, and has been writing short stories and poetry since the age of ten. AN INDIAN SUMMER MURDER is his second novel, drawing from his love of mysteries and interest in casino operations. He is a graduate of the Institute of Children’s Literature, and has had several works of poetry published in anthologies by the International Library of Poetry, by whom he was presented the Editor’s Choice Award for Outstanding Achievement in Poetry for 1995 and 1996.