When the CIA enlists celebrity chef Sebastian Pike to use his food and culture travel show as cover for espionage, it kicks off a high stakes mission full of danger and romance. From Paris to Provence, there’s peril, double dealing, plus a minefield of complications from the hot romance that sparks between the bad-boy chef and his CIA handler.

A new spy thriller coming May 14, 2024, from Regalo Press.

Praise for THE ACCIDENTAL JOE

“Tom Straw's Sebastian Pike is a wonderful addition to the annals of amateur sleuths of the crime/spy genre. Wisecracking and wounded, his clear, innocent voice carries a deep understanding of the world we know and, more importantly, the world that we suspect. The Accidental Joe is a Hitchcockian spy story: surrounded by more spies than he knows, Pike is the ultimate amateur, a chef-provocateur for a cable TV reality show balancing a tower of croquembouche in the South of France amidst a dizzyingly fast-paced mission filled with assassins and betrayals.”

            —WALTER MOSLEY, author of EVERY MAN A KING and the forthcoming Easy Rawlins, FAREWELL, AMETHYSTINE.

“Tom Straw has set the bar for culinary, espionage, travel thrillers. Actually, I think he invented the bar. And it’s a bar I’d meet him at anytime.”

—ALTON BROWN, Culinary personality but also totally a spy.

“A masterful beginning to a series I hope runs forever. The writing is superb, the action thrilling, the story both exciting and gut wrenching. Bourdain, le Carré, Herron, and Greene, make room for Straw.”

—REED FARREL COLEMAN, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of SLEEPLESS CITY.

“I couldn't put it down -- and I sure didn't want to! Great action, clever tradecraft, behind-the-scenes TV production, and food porn, all offered up by one of the most appealing narrators I've come across in years. I hope Tom Straw is intending this to be a series because I'm already on line for the next one.”

—SJ ROZAN, best-selling author of THE MAYORS OF NEW YORK.

“A line from some other novelist comes to mind where this terrific thriller starring a TV chef turned spy is concerned: Please, sir, I want some more. This book has everything. Suspense, humor, intrigue, great locales and dialogue. Top shelf.”

—LINWOOD BARCLAY, Author of THE LIE MAKER, a London Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller.

 
TSauthor300dpi.jpeg

 

Photo © Jill Krementz

About Tom Straw

TOM STRAW published his first mystery novel, The Trigger Episode, in 2007. Subsequently, writing as Richard Castle, he authored seven more crime novels, all of which became New York Times Bestsellers. Buzz Killer is Tom Straw’s first book under his own name since that blockbuster Nikki Heat series. He is also an Emmy- and Writer’s Guild of America-nominated TV writer and producer having written and produced Night Court, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, Dave’s World, Grace Under Fire, Cosby, Whoopi, and Nurse Jackie. A former National Board member of Mystery Writers of America, he lives in Connecticut, where his home is his castle. 

Publicity Requests:

McCartin Daniels PR - sallyannemccartin@gmail.com

 
 

Buzz Killer

“I can say with high confidence that any fan of Castle will love Buzz Killer by Tom Straw, a masterfully entertaining mystery of pulse-pounding fun. Richard Castle has met his match!” — Andrew W. Marlowe, Creator and Executive Producer of Castle
 


New York City public defender Macie Wild takes the homicide case of a burglar the tabloids nickname the Buzz Killer for his MO of lobby-buzzing apartments to select his targets. But when he is the victim of an attempted jailhouse killing and then someone tries to kill Macie, her murder case reveals itself to be something bigger. 

Stonewalled by a hostile DA and shut down by a code of silence from the Buzz Killer’s criminal circle, she crosses paths with Gunnar Cody, an ex-detective dismissed from the NYPD’s elite surveillance unit. The brash former police spy is now a freelance video journalist trampling all over Macie’s case, shooting a documentary. In spite of her misgivings about his methods, Macie and Gunnar form an uneasy partnership fraught with moral conflicts and romantic sparks.

In constant danger from a ruthless contract killer, they collide with an unscrupulous pharmaceutical CEO, a playboy prince, rogue FBI agents, a high-tech cat burglar, a sadistic call girl, plus a scheme to launder illegal Russian billions through Manhattan luxury real estate. In an emotional climax they expose a deadly conspiracy that reaches the highest halls of power, culminating in a shocking twist that’s anything but a buzz killer.

Link to purchase at Amazon.com.

 
 

The Trigger Episode


"A debut in the Chandler tradition..." — Kirkus Reviews 

"The author, a veteran sitcom writer, keeps the proceedings moving along at a nice, light clip, and he obviously knows his way around a television studio and its assorted personalities. " — Booklist
 

Hardwick, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, falls from a grace, and to survive he's now part of the Hollywood paparazzi. Television star Bonnie Quinn disappears (before the taping of the 100th episode The Trigger Episode) and Hardwick's hired to find her. As Hardwick searches for Bonnie, he runs into old girlfriend Meddy, who treats him with disdain. But a suspicious death re-teams him with Meddy and Hardwick grapples with his feelings for both women, his hope for redemption, and the solving of The Trigger Episode.

Link to purchase at Amazon.com.