by Todd Borg
“A THRILL RIDE” - Mary Beth Magee, Examiner.com
“BORG’S WRITING IS THE STUFF OF A HOLLYWOOD ACTION BLOCKBUSTER” - Taylor Flynn, Tahoe Mountain News
“THE PACE WILL LEAVE YOU BREATHLESS” - Wendy Schultz, Placerville Mountain Democrat
“ACTION-PACKED IS PUTTING IT MILDLY. PREPARE FOR FIREWORKS” - Sunny Solomon, Bookin’ With Sunny
“I LOVED EVERY ROLLER COASTER RIDE IN THIS THRILLER 5+ OUT OF 5” - Harvee Lau, Book Dilettante
PRAISE FOR TAHOE CHASE
“EXCITING, EXPLOSIVE, THOUGHTFUL, SOMETIMES FUNNY” - Ann Ronald, Bookin’ With Sunny
“THE LANDSCAPE IS BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED... PACE BUILDS NICELY AND DOESN’T LET UP” - Kirkus Reviews
“BE WARNED. IT MIGHT BE ADDICTING” - Gloria Sinibaldi, Tahoe Daily Tribune
“OWEN McKENNA HAS HIS HANDS FULL IN ANOTHER THRILLING ADVENTURE” - Harvee Lau, Book Dilettante
“I CAN GUARANTEE THAT THE OLD MAN WILL HAVE YOU CHEERING OUT LOUD BEFORE THE END OF THE BOOK” - Cathy Cole, Kittling: Books
PRAISE FOR TAHOE TRAP
“AN OPEN-THROTTLE RIDE” - Wendy Schultz, Placerville Mountain Democrat
“A CONSTANTLY SURPRISING SERIES OF EVENTS INVOLVING MURDER...and the final motivation of the killer comes as a major surprise. (I love when that happens.)” - Yvette, In So Many Words
“I LOVE TODD BORG’S BOOKS... There is the usual great twist ending in Tahoe Trap that I never would have guessed” - JBronder Book Reviews
“THE PLOTS ARE HIGH OCTANE AND THE ACTION IS FASTER THAN A CHEETAH ON SPEED” - Cathy Cole, Kittling: Books
“A FASCINATING STORY WITH FIRST CLASS WRITING and, of course, my favorite character, Spot, a Great Dane that steals most of the scenes.” - Mary Lignor, Feathered Quill Book Reviews
“SUPER CLEVER... More twists in the plot toward the end of the book turn the mystery into an even more suspenseful thriller.” -Harvee Lau, Book Dilettante
“AN EXCITING MURDER MYSTERY... I watch for the ongoing developments of Jack Reacher, Joanna Brady, Dismas Hardy, Peter and Rina Decker, and Alex Cross to name a few. But these days I look forward most to the next installment of Owen McKenna.” - China Gorman blog
PRAISE FOR TAHOE HIJACK
“BEGINNING TO READ TAHOE HIJACK IS LIKE FLOOR-BOARDING A RACE CAR... RATING: A+” - Cathy Cole, Kittling Books
“A THRILLING READ... any reader will find the pages of his thrillers impossible to stop turning” - Caleb Cage, The Nevada Review
“THE BOOK CLIMAXES WITH A TWIST THE READER DOESN’T SEE COMING, WORTHY OF MICHAEL CONNELLY” - Heather Gould, Tahoe Mountain News
“I HAD TO HOLD MY BREATH DURING THE LAST PART OF THIS FAST-PACED THRILLER” - Harvee Lau, Book Dilettante
PRAISE FOR TAHOE HEAT
“IN TAHOE HEAT, BORG MASTERFULLY WRITES A SEQUENCE OF EVENTS SO INTENSE THAT IT BELONGS IN AN EARLY TOM CLANCY NOVEL” - Caleb Cage, Nevada Review
“TAHOE HEAT IS A RIVETING THRILLER” - John Burroughs, Midwest Book Review
“WILL KEEP READERS TURNING THE PAGES AS OWEN RACES TO CATCH A VICIOUS KILLER” - Barbara Bibel, Booklist
“THE READER CAN’T HELP BUT ROOT FOR McKENNA AS THE BIG, GENEROUS, IRISH-BLOODED, STREET-WISE-YET-BOOK-SMART FORMER COP” - Taylor Flynn, Tahoe Mountain News
PRAISE FOR TAHOE NIGHT
“BORG HAS WRITTEN ANOTHER WHITE-KNUCKLE
THRILLER... A sure bet for mystery buffs waiting for the next Robert B. Parker and Lee Child novels” - Jo Ann Vicarel, Library Journal
“AN ACTION-PACKED THRILLER WITH A NICE-GUY HERO, AN EVEN NICER DOG...” - Kirkus Reviews
“A KILLER PLOT... EVERY ONE OF ITS 350 PAGES WANTS TO GET TURNED... FAST” - Taylor Flynn, Tahoe Mountain News
“A FASCINATING STORY OF FORGERY, MURDER...” - Nancy Hayden, Tahoe Daily Tribune
PRAISE FOR TAHOE AVALANCHE
ONE OF THE TOP 5 MYSTERIES OF THE YEAR! - Gayle Wedgwood, Mystery News
“BORG IS A SUPERB STORYTELLER...A MASTER OF THE GENRE”- Midwest Book Review
“EXPLODES INTO A COMPLEX PLOT THAT LEADS TO MURDER AND INTRIGUE” - Nancy Hayden, Tahoe Daily Tribune
PRAISE FOR TAHOE SILENCE
WINNER, BEN FRANKLIN AWARD, BEST MYSTERY OF THE YEAR!
“A HEART-WRENCHING MYSTERY THAT IS ALSO ONE OF THE BEST NOVELS WRITTEN ABOUT AUTISM” STARRED REVIEW - Jo Ann Vicarel, Library Journal
CHOSEN BY LIBRARY JOURNAL AS ONE OF THE FIVE BEST
MYSTERIES OF THE YEAR
“THIS IS ONE ENGROSSING NOVEL...IT IS SUPERB” - Gayle Wedgwood, Mystery News
“ANOTHER EXCITING ENTRY INTO THIS TOO-LITTLE-KNOWN SERIES” - Mary Frances Wilkens, Booklist
PRAISE FOR TAHOE KILLSHOT
“BORG BELONGS ON THE BESTSELLER LISTS with Parker, Paretsky, and Coben” - Merry Cutler, Annie’s Book Stop, Sharon, Massachusetts
“A GREAT READ!” -Shelley Glodowski, Midwest Book Review
“A WONDERFUL BOOK”- Gayle Wedgwood, Mystery News
PRAISE FOR TAHOE ICE GRAVE
“BAFFLING CLUES...CONSISTENTLY ENTERTAINS” - Kirkus Reviews
“A CLEVER PLOT... RECOMMEND THIS MYSTERY” - John Rowen, Booklist
“A BIG THUMBS UP... MR. BORG’S PLOTS ARE SUPER-TWISTERS” - Shelley Glodowski, Midwest Book Review
“GREAT CHARACTERS, LOTS OF ACTION, AND SOME CLEVER PLOT TWISTS...Readers have to figure they are in for a good ride, and Todd Borg does not disappoint.” - John Orr, San Jose Mercury News
PRAISE FOR TAHOE BLOWUP
“A COMPELLING TALE OF ARSON ON THE MOUNTAIN” - Barbara Peters, The Poisoned Pen Bookstore
“RIVETING... A MUST READ FOR MYSTERY FANS!” - Karen Dini, Addison Public Library, Addison, Illinois
WINNER! BEST MYSTERY OF THE YEAR - Bay Area Independent Publishers Association
PRAISE FOR TAHOE DEATHFALL
“THRILLING, EXTENDED RESCUE/CHASE” - Kirkus Reviews
“A TREMENDOUS READ FROM A GREAT WRITER” - Shelley Glodowski, Midwest Book Review
“BORG OFFERS A SIMPLY TERRIFIC DOG” - Barbara Peters, The Poisoned Pen
WINNER! BEST THRILLER OF THE YEAR - Bay Area Independent Publishers Association
“A TAUT MYSTERY... A SCREECHING CLIMAX” - Karen Dini, Addison Public Library, Addison, Illinois
Titles by Todd Borg
TAHOE DEATHFALL
TAHOE BLOWUP
TAHOE ICE GRAVE
TAHOE KILLSHOT
TAHOE SILENCE
TAHOE AVALANCHE
TAHOE NIGHT
TAHOE HEAT
TAHOE HIJACK
TAHOE TRAP
TAHOE CHASE
TAHOE GHOST BOAT
TAHOE BLUE FIRE
Thriller Press First Edition, August 2015
TAHOE BLUE FIRE
Copyright © 2015 by Todd Borg
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Thriller Press, a division of WRST, Inc.
This novel is a work of fiction. Any references to real locales, establishments, organizations, people, or events are intended only to give the fiction a sense of verisimilitude. All other names, places, characters and incidents portrayed in this book are the product of the author’s imagination.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from Thriller Press, P.O. Box 551110, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96155.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015907152
ISBN: 978-1-931296-23-6
Cover design and map by Keith Carlson
Manufactured in the United States of America
This Book Is For Kit
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I owe huge thanks to my editors, Liz Johnston, Eric Berglund, Christel Hall, and my wife Kit. They put in hundreds of hours on this project, and I can’t thank them enough.
The cover of Tahoe Blue Fire is especially intriguing. Because this novel has a story thread that connects mod
ern day Tahoe to the Italian Renaissance, communicating that on the cover seemed an impossible task. Yet Portland, Oregon graphic artist Keith Carlson created a look I love, with a sense of mystery reaching back 500 years. The cover is magnificent.
I owe special thanks to Bob Hiland for teaching me something about poetry, no small task considering the depth and breadth of my ignorance. My head is now filled with the dance of prosody, rhythm and meter, free verse and rhyming verse, metaphor and theme, all kneaded into iambic beats.
As always, I couldn’t have done this book without Kit’s vision and support. She understands the picture of story as well as the pictures she paints. I’m a lucky guy.