The Calling Card Murders - The Crawford Chronicles, #1

A virtually unknown indie author attempting to impress a large publishing house gets swept up into a massive murder investigation when his work seemingly leaps from the page making him the prime suspect. Michael McAllister was a small-time independent writer.  With little to no true success, he strives to create the next breakout hit on his way to becoming a well-known fiction crime writer.  He just needed someone to take notice of his latest unique story idea.  A sudden opportunity thrusts him into the world he had only dreamed of, but he quickly learns that there is a difference between being famous and being infamous. While a string of seemingly random open murder cases is not unusual for a large city's homicide division, receiving an anonymously delivered draft manuscript detailing the murders, outlining more to come, is certainly not the norm.  Each written crime described maps to an open case, containing details not previously released to the press.  As it turns out, the unpublished work-in-progress is written by one Michael McAllister. Detective Crawford, armed with what seems to be a killer's perverse playbook, takes an interest of the previously unknown writer.  Has he discovered the writer's morbid muse?