Kirkus Reviews said of Target Blue, “Unmistakably authentic detail in action and atmosphere distinguish a thriller by and about Dallas policemen cracking car theft and drug rings in one very nasty week. ``Terry Marlow'' is (or are) a Dallas police sergeant and a former Dallas SWAT captain. Not for the fainthearted, this slice of the lowlife begins with a bloody drug-dealer shootout and gets more and more violent, even though the lead cop, Sgt. Bill Clark, heads up the city's auto-theft squad rather than one of the rougher operations. Clark's troops, who normally spend their time closing down chop shops, have opened the smelly trunks of a couple of cars to find butchered bodies of nude go-go dancers. The young victims have had the bad luck to run afoul of ``Mack,'' a sadistic biker who has formed a drug-and-gun-dealing partnership with an apparently respectable and rich young businessman. That drug business is of great interest to an up-and-coming Mexican-American gang and to a Jamaican posse. Complicating everybody's investigations are two undercover policewomen, one of whom has been hooked on speed by the unspeakable Mack. The other officer has donned scanty vest and skirt to work as a waitress in a nude-dancing dive, where she meets the lonesome Sgt. Clark in the middle of a mugging. The interrelationships of the investigations being carried out by a dozen different divisions of the police come to light in an unauthorized meeting of politically incorrect but very clever officers. Brutal, nasty, and quite good. Believable heroics and a breakneck pace.”

Publisher’s Weekly said of The Dallas Deception: A Jack Kyle Mystery, “He drinks, smokes, lives out of his office and is always seriously short of cash. Square in the tradition of down-and-out PIs, Abshire's Dallas detective Jack Kyle (introduced in Dallas Drop ) is also a sensitive, modern guy, not yet 40, as up-to-date as the advanced technology employed by the deranged genius at the heart of this hard-to-credit but deftly handled plot. As a favor to an old Dallas PD pal, Kyle investigates the keyhole porn scam by which teenage Liz, filmed while having sex, is being blackmailed. Kyle finds the tapes and roughs up the filmmaker, but shortly thereafter discovers Liz back at the lout's apartment, naked and stoned, the young man's bloody corpse still warm in the bathroom. Getting the girl out of there just before the cops arrive, he takes her to her grandfather, called The Doctor, and begins to unravel the tangled history of warped, mind-controlling experiments that have led to murder and other evils. Savvy and reasonable even in fairly bizarre setting, Kyle is a pleasant, unpredictable companion for an evening's read.”

Publisher’s Weekly said of Dallas Drop, “Abshire, a 21-year member of the Dallas police force and later a private detective, might have been expected to use that experience to bring something new to the private eye novel, but Dallas Drop , while stylish and well paced, is very much the same old yarn. Jack Kyle is the traditional hard-boiled operative: middle-aged, divorced, broke and cynical. The caper in which he becomes involved is in keeping with the modern trend, dealing with political intrigue, the CIA and drugs rather than family secrets and larcenous hoodlums. Kyle is hired by his former boss, police lieutenant Brendan O'Bannion, to carry out a mysterious mission after O'Bannion is suspended from the Dallas force for shooting a man. It's an unusual situation: O'Bannion is the man who ruined Kyle's career in the first place, even while having an affair with Kyle's wife and eventually marrying her. A rogue CIA operative soon complicates the matter, which involves Latin American politics. There's murder, of course, and beautiful women galore, including ex-wife Betty, sultry Latin American mystery woman Pilar and ditzy receptionist Della (all of whom have a delightful propensity for shedding their clothing at every opportunity). Fans of the genre will probably find this a satisfying, but not wildly original caper.”

The Shaman Tree Richard Abshire  More Info The Dallas Deception: A Jack Kyle Mystery Richard Abshire  More Info Gants Richard Abshire  More Info Turnaround Jack: a Jack Kyle Mystery richard abshire  More Info Dallas Drop Richard Abshire  More Info Marlow is the pseudonym for the Dallas Police writing team of Clair and Abshire Target Blue Terry Marlow  More Info

Publisher’s Weekly said of The Shaman Tree, “In the sequel to Gants, Texas police officers Abshire and Clair describe the later trials of ex-homicide detective Charlie Gants, hero of the critically praised original. While recovering from the breakdown caused by the terrors of the first case, Charlie accepts an assignment from Leighton Childress, lawyer to the late Amber McKendrick. Drowned at the McKendrick ranch in Texas, Amber could be the most recent victim of an Indian curse on the McKendricks for usurping Native American burial grounds. Meeting the large family--McKendrick, his wife, children and grandchilden--Charlie senses greed and suspects humans rather than ghosts are killing each other off, reducing the number of the patriarch's inheritors. But the detective's belief is shaken when the sudden deaths continue, every one preceded by a visit from an aged Indian, visible only to Charlie. As this lusty, haunting, violent mystery arrives at a final shocker, one feels less inclined to doubt the power of the supernatural.”