Paul Turner

Publishers Weekly calls Mark Richard Zubro's Sorry Now: A Paul Turner Mystery? "Compelling and even urgent." While in Chicago, right-wing televangelist Bruce Mucklewrath is attacked and his daughter killed. Sensing a potential time bomb, and with Mucklewrath creating great pressure, the police brass assign the case to Detective Paul Turner whom they trust with sensitive matters. During their investigation, Turner and his partner discover that other right-wing bigots have been suffering odd attacks, and they begin to suspect a conspiracy of vengeance, perhaps even from the gay community. This is an uncomfortable thought for Turner, who is himself gay, but when Turner is attacked and his two sons threatened, he has to enlist the help of people in his close-knit neighborhood, as well as his contacts in the gay world, to find the solution in time.

Paul Turner is not your typical middle-aged cop. A widower, he lives with his two teenaged sons, and he is gay. He is also trusted by the brass to handle sensitive cases, so when a Chicago Alderman is found murdered, Turner is assigned to the case. The dead Alderman was not only a professor at the University of Chicago, but also a leading liberal gadfly with the media's ear. As Turner investigates, he discovers that jealous professors and old-guard politicians have guilty secrets to protect, not the least of which are the real reasons why some people in Chicago hated the alderman-information that they will stop at nothing to keep secret.

When two suburban high-school students are found murdered--both boys who were well respected and liked, with solid family lives and no apparent enemies--Detected Paul Turner is assigned the case. However as a gay father with two teenage sons and a new lover in his life, Paul Turner has trouble bringing his full attention to bear on the case. But as details slowly emergy, he begins to suspect that he is investigating something more deadly and horrifying than a pair of senseless killings, something that could threaten the lives of the people he holds most dear. Booklist gives Another Dead Teenager a rave review: "As in Zubro's previous books, readers have both campy humor and an action filled plot to keep them entertained. Highly recommended--this one's a good read in every sense of the term!"

Craig Lenzati, the rich and powerful CEO of Chicago's answer to Microsoft, is found brutally murdered with stab wounds all over his body. The murder is reported anonymously, and a quick and quiet resolution to the case is demanded by City Hall. Meanwhile, the list of suspects is almost endless and that along has the powers-that-be breathing down the necks of Chicago Police Detectives Paul Turner and Buck Fenwick. But as the two struggle to untangle the case and find the killer, they soon learn that the killer has only just begun. Mark Richard Zubro's wisecracking detectives are back and better than ever in Sex and Murder.com.

Boys4U is the world's most popular singing group, at least among teenaged girls, and they have closed out their sold-out world tour with a series of shows in Chicago's brand new arena. The premier group of the inexplicably popular "boy band" trend, they've just finished their very last concert of the tour. While hundreds of tour members, well-wishers, label executives, and various hangers on wait to celebrate another wildly successful tour, the lead singer is found murdered, shot in the back of the head at close range, in the shower of the backstage dressing area. To make matters more distressing, the crime itself was almost impossible, there was tight security on the shower area at all times, the only other people back there were the other members of the band, and none of the dozens of people in the next room report having heard a shot. While the international press is engaged in an unprecedented feeding frenzy over the sensationalistic murder, Chicago Police Detectives Paul Turner and his partner Buck Fenwick have pulled the unenviable task of investigating the murder. But even, the initial appearances are deceiving and as they dig deeper into the case, they uncover more disturbing truths beneath the wholesome façade of Boys4U. Now they have untangle an increasingly complex web if they are to stop a determined killer before more victims are claimed.

In Mark Richard Zubro's Nerds Who Kill, Paul Turner is a widowed father of two teenaged boys, one of whom has spina bifida, rapidly approaching middle age, and used to dealing gracefully with all the challenges these things entail. Turner, however, is slightly different from others in his situation - he's openly gay and a homicide detective for the Chicago Police Department. Despite everything, his personal and family life is relatively placid. Until right now. This time, his life couldn't possibly get more complex and problematic: there's a Science Fiction and Media convention in Chicago this weekend - one of the world's largest such gathering - and his sons are both attending. In full costume. And Paul Turner, like any good father, is going with them. If the prospect of that weren't bad enough, one of the convention's guests - one of the field's most successful fantasy writers - is found murdered, mostly likely by the broadsword found rammed through the corpse's chest. In most circumstances, a broadsword would be a unique murder weapon, but this time there are hundreds of attendees carrying similar ones as part of their costumes. Including his own son. That one gruesome murder is just the beginning - the dead bodies amidst the revelers are starting to pile up - and Turner must sort through a confusing array of suspects in short order if he's to find the killer in time.

Since when are vacations ever relaxing? All Chicago police Detective Paul Turner is hoping for on his annual retreat from the city and his job is a little peace and quiet. This time he's headed to the Canadian Great North Woods for a couple of weeks with family and friends - his two teenaged sons, his lover Ben, neighborhood pals, and his long-term police partner, Detective Buck Fenwick, along with his wife. But, hopes of tranquility are soon crushed when Turner intervenes in a scuffle between a group of First Nations teens and a local bully and his cohorts. In the days following the incident, Turner and company find themselves the object of a series of attacks, break-ins, and sabotage of their equipment. Unable to get the attention of the local police, the events continue to escalate, culminating in the local bully's dead body being found floating in the water near the dock of their houseboat. In Mark Richard Zubro's Hook, Line, and Homicide, things are turning out to be not only one of the least relaxing vacations ever, but one of the deadliest.