Stalking Bulls

STALKING BULLS, another kind of theater of the mind. You've enjoyed them on radio; now read them in print. YOU CAN SYMPATHIZE WITH PARKER ROBINSON: On the one hand, he has a guardian aunt who thinks he's a responsible college student but doesn't know he's on probation for skipping a half-semester's worth of classes to go surfing Hawaii. He has a Polynesian girlfriend whose face could launch a thousand outrigger canoes. He has a dog that listens only to him. He drives an antique 'bullet' Thunderbird that belonged to a late uncle and another uncle, who is the Boston Police Commissioner, who offers him a summer's internship provided he not involve himself in police business. Parker agrees. But this is before the Isabella Stewart Gardner Art Museum suffers its second major break-in-and-art-heist and Parker realizes he must involve himself to save his uncle's job. However, doing so leads to unintended consequences: such as his girlfriend being kidnapped. To free her, he has to come face to face with a modern-day Minotaur ––must confront it and wrestle it–– even though it means pitting the monster's brute strength against Parker's youth. Stalking Bulls is the first book of a trilogy, which includes Stalking Lions and Stalking Chickens.

STALKING BULLS, another kind of theater of the mind. You've enjoyed them on radio; now read them in print. YOU CAN SYMPATHIZE WITH PARKER ROBINSON: On the one hand, he has a guardian aunt who thinks he's a responsible college student but doesn't know he's on probation for skipping a half-semester's worth of classes to go surfing Hawaii. He has a Polynesian girlfriend whose face could launch a thousand outrigger canoes. He has a dog that listens only to him. He drives an antique 'bullet' Thunderbird that belonged to a late uncle and another uncle, who is the Boston Police Commissioner, who offers him a summer's internship provided he not involve himself in police business. Parker agrees. But this is before the Isabella Stewart Gardner Art Museum suffers its second major break-in-and-art-heist and Parker realizes he must involve himself to save his uncle's job. However, doing so leads to unintended consequences: such as his girlfriend being kidnapped. To free her, he has to come face to face with a modern-day Minotaur ––must confront it and wrestle it–– even though it means pitting the monster's brute strength against Parker's youth. Stalking Bulls is the first book of a trilogy, which includes Stalking Lions and Stalking Chickens.

Steven Thomas Oney is the author of the award-winning Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theater series, heard and broadcast world-wide and over more than 225 NPR stations. During the outbreak of Covid in 2019, Oney temporarily suspended producing more radio mysteries in favor of penning a trio of Parker Robinson mystery novels. Commenting, Oney explains: "I have always felt that it was useful for a writer, when starting out, to try to present himself with a challenge in order to spur his creativity to greater heights. (Shakespeare was known for doing this.) I was also aware that author, James M. Cain, is often credited with having written the finest back-to-back, noir-style mysteries with his The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934), followed by Double Indemnity (1936). I felt that the basic storylines I had come up with for Stalking Bulls and Stalking Lions were sufficiently good, and had sufficient potential, that I might be able to duplicate what Cain had done, not with a pair of noir-style mysteries, but with a brace of fresh, youthful, amateur-detective-style mysteries. "Then, while finishing the first two, I had another inspiration for a third Parker Robinson mystery, Stalking Chickens. Now, however, raising the project from two books to three, required me to reconfigure my personal challenge. Therefore, I made the switch ––not by trying to duplicate what Cain had done–– but by trying to match what Carolyn Keene had achieved when she authored the first three Nancy Drew mysteries: The Secret of the Old Clock (1930), The Hidden Staircase (1930) and The Bungalow Mystery (1930). (The best of the lot, in my opinion.) "The lucky addition of the third Parker Robinson mystery showing up was fortuitous in that it allowed for a satisfying overall arc to the three stories ––that not only adds to the richness of the first two–– but also gives rise to that familiar poignancy and regret that always follows when the reader is forced to say goodbye to likable characters they've grown to have real affection for."