Featuring on Friday - David Ciambrone

Happy Friday!

I discovered a local author that I wanted to share with you. I bumped into his books in a little General Store in Salado Tx. last fall and picked u[ one of the books  - Suspicious Threads. Just finished it this week. I saved it for our August Mystery Book Club theme which was Staycation - Texas, any mystery set in Texas.

Although this is the only book by David Ciambrone I have read, and enjoyed it. I think he has a pretty interesting bio and want to read some more of his books.

About:

Dr. David Ciambrone is a retired scientist, professor, and a forensics consultant and is now a best selling, award winning author living in Georgetown, Texas, with his wife Kathy. He has published 20 books, four (4) non-fiction and fourteen fiction, and has a new mystery in work. He has also published two (2) textbooks for a California university. Dave has been a speaker at writers groups, schools, colleges and conferences and business conferences internationally.

He has been past vice president of Sisters-in-Crime; Orange County, CA, and past President of the Austin chapter of Sisters-in Crime, a member of Mystery Writers of America, past Member of the Board of Directors of the Writer’s league of Texas, and is Past President of the San Gabriel’s Writer’s League in Georgetown, Texas and is a member of the Williamson County Coroners and the International Thriller Writers. Dave was also on the Georgetown Library Advisory Board and the board of a local theater. He was Chairman on the Williamson County Appraisal Review Board and was on the board of directors of a Texas special utility district. He is Chairman of the Williamson County, TX Historical Commission.

Dr. Ciambrone wrote three newspaper columns and wrote a column for a business journal. He was a judge of a Writer’s League of Texas, San Gabriel Writer’s League and the Abilene, TX Writer’s Guild writing contests.

He is a fellow of the International Oceanographic Foundation and has a Bronze Trowel Award from the Archaeological Institute of America. He is also a member of the Order of Merlin of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

Writing Awards:

• 2008 Sage Award
• TEXAS Mystery Book of the Summer award 2009–San Gabriel’s Secret–Dallas Book Guild



• American Academy of Environmental Engineers 1998 listed Waste Minimization as a Strategic Weapon a best seller (nonfiction)
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• 2013, 2014 Nominated for the Lovey Award– Love is Murder Conference
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Dr. Ciambrone writes three mystery series.

The Virginia Davies series follows Virginia over her career. Starting out as a graduate student in the first book to working for the Smithsonian Central Security Service. There are 11 books in the series.

The last four are quilting mysteries. They all sound really good and I don't want to skimp on the descriptions, but will show you the first and last to date in this series. 

Laguna Treasure: Book One

"Virginia Davies, a graduate student in history is embroiled in an unclassic adventure involving a hoard of gold, thieves and a ring of smugglers in a plot that almost costs Virginia and her friends their lives. Laguna Treasure begins in 1933 in a watery cave in the coastal mountains of Southern California. Sixty plus years later, an antique dealer friend of Virginia’s, Abbey McQueen, provides a clue that launches Virginia on a perilous adventure. Virginia finds her life is placed in jeopardy by a group of thieves interested in gaining her treasure at any cost. People she contacts keep turning up dead. She and Dr. Andy Clark, her boyfriend and Professor of Engineering, plunge headlong into a vicious, no-holds-bared, seemingly non-ending struggle to what could be a one way journey to survive."

Whispering Threads - Book 11 and Book 4 of the quilting mysteries. This book just came out 7/31/18.

"Virginia ventures to Palm Springs, California for a quilt show and conference. It's also a reunion and respite for her and her long-time friend, Donna Bolette. A few days of fun, sun, and quilting can't hurt. They visit Virginia's old teacher and friend, Ms. Carol Jean Putman when they arrive in the desert. After a nice friendly visit, Carol is discovered murdered on her ranch. Virginia's shock doubles when she learns that Carol Jean Putman made Virginia the executor of her estate and the new owner of a whole lot of desert. Virginia learns the murder involves a special quilt that partially glows in the dark, a painting from the seventeen hundreds, a legend about old Spanish galleons lost in the desert sands, and a vast treasure hidden centuries ago. Virginia's mastered the art of piecing together blocks to create intricate quilts, but piecing together her friend's murder will prove far more challenging."

I read Book Three of the quilting series, Suspicious Threads. It was a good mystery, and fun to read about local businesses and current issues in our area. 

Adam Thomas series: There are two books in this series.

San Gabriel's Secret - Book One.



"Nestled on the San Gabriel River in Central Texas’s Hill Country, Georgetown is a small town where things are normally pretty quiet. That is, until Adam Thomas, a retired scientist and now writer of a newspaper column for women under the name Aunt Kay, inherits a Confederate solder’s journal and a new murder.
Adam and his girlfriend Kathy find themselves the center of dark doings and strange people as they race headlong into a fast-paced, high-stakes adventure to untangle a murderous puzzle, a series of macabre organizations and locate the centuries-old San Gabriel Secret."

The Trashy Gourmet - Book Two



"Adam Thomas has a knack for finding dead bodies. He also has a knack for tracking down cold-blooded killers. During his month-long sojourn in chef's school in Georgetown, Texas, retired scientist and newspaper columnist Adam Thomas, now known as the Trashy Gourmet, once again finds himself embroiled in the middle of a murder mystery. He's there when someone stabs Chef Elacroix with one of his customized carving knives. Adam becomes a consultant to his friend Captain Roland Waits of the Georgetown Police Department. Hopefully he'll carve out clues the police can't. Together with his girlfriend Kathy Rossi, Adam sifts through facts, questions fellow students, and narrowly avoids becoming one of the increasing number of corpses."

Jack Turner series: There are two books in this series.

Chimera - Book One



"Someone broke into the high-level security section of USAMRIID (US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases) at Fort Detrick, Maryland and steals vials of weaponized smallpox. Later, the individual is found at the Washington, DC train station.
Jack Turner, Ph.D., is a chemist and the Coroner of San Sebastian County California. He is also a reserve officer (Lt. Colonel) in the Army Medical Service Corp and has a background in chemical and biological warfare from working for defense contractors and a stint at USAMRIID.
When one of his Medical Examiners hits the HOT ZONE lock down button, while performing an autopsy, Jack is called to the morgue. The body the M.E. was examining died of smallpox. Not regular smallpox, but an unusual and highly reactive strain of the disease. Upon examination Jack realizes the strain is a man made chimera. The smallpox virus was released from inside the cells of an E-coli bacteria as the cells were killed by antibiotics and the dead man’s immune system.
Who made it? Where did it come from? E-coli is common. But, smallpox was eradicated decades ago.
Dr. Turner receives orders from the U.S. Army Adjutant General activating his reserve commission and authorizes him to serve as a law enforcement special agent of the army.
Will Jack and a health department officer, Nancy Cartwright, be able to find the Chimeras and the perpetrators before these terrorist trigger a pandemic.
Somehow, Jack and Nancy must stop the attack that could be worse than an atom bomb."

Red Tide Murders - Book Two



"Jack Turner, Ph.D., is a chemist and the Coroner of San Sebastian County California. Looking forward to a nice evening with his girlfriend Nancy Cartwright, Jack’s plans get interrupted by the Sheriff. Someone has murdered a wealthy town playboy and financial donor to area politicians. Because of his background, the Sheriff wants Jack, as Coroner, to investigate the murder with the sheriff’s office. Jack is also a reserve officer (Colonel) in the Army Medical Service Corp and has a background in chemical and biological warfare from working for defense contractors and a stint at USAMRIID (US ARMY MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES). Jack discovers there is a serious problem with the dead man. He has died of a toxic cocktail that is made from natural sources. One of the sources is a deadly form of algae. When more bodies turn up murdered by the same toxins, they suspect terrorist, and the hunt is on. Who made it? Where did it come from? Jack is called to active duty by the Army and with his girlfriend, a health department officer, Nancy Cartwright, must find the source of the toxic cocktail, find the perpetrators, stop anyone from using it as a terrorist weapon and causing a pandemic."

Each of the series sound very different. Dr. Ciambrone has also written a stand alone.
Poisons: The Handbook for Writers and three business books.

You can take a closer look at all of his books here.

http://davidciambrone.com/