Created by Mindy Meija
It took a couple of books, but by the third in the series, The Whisper Place (2025), ex-cop MAX SUMMERLIN and his psychic best bud JONAH KENDRICK are both officially private detectives, opening up Celina Investigations in Iowa City.
Yeah, you’d think being a psychic (or having one as your partner) would save an awful lot of shoe leather for a detective agency, but Jonah’s special skill set (he dreams of the lost) is unpredictable at best, and possibly weakening.
One of the saving graces in the series is that Max and Jonah are, for the most part, just regular, beer-drinking joes, pals since college, and not a couple of effete, woo-woo-powered sophisticates. The stories boast bold, twisty plots and the author isn’t afraid to go dark.
Max was introduced in the first book in the series, To Catch a Storm (2023), as an Iowa City cop, but played a relatively minor role, before moving into the spotlight in the next year’s A World of Hurt (nominated for the Sue Grafton Memorial Edgar) when he’s temporarily assigned to a DEA task force. In that one it’s Jonah who steps back. So it’s good to see both of them finally sharing the spotlight together in this promising and well-regarded series.
Mind you, Amazon refers to it as the “To Catch a Storm” series, so who knows?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mindy Mejia is a CPA and a graduate of the Hamline University MFA program. She lives in the Twin Cities with her family, and is the author of Strike Me Down, Everything You Want Me to Be, and Leave No Trace.
UNDER OATH
- “A lot of people may think of the Midwest as nothing but placid fields of corn and soybeans. Mindy Mejia’s stunning new thriller will change that. Set during a deadly ice storm, Mejia’s story rushes across the frozen Iowa landscape in a fury of fire and a hail of bullets. I finished To Catch A Storm in two sittings. If I didn’t have to sleep, I’d have done it in one. Swear to God, this book is absolutely unputdownable.”
— William Kent Krueger
NOVELS
- To Catch a Storm (2023) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- A World of Hurt (2025) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- The Whisper Place (2025) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
