Roadhouse Blues, Baron Birtcher
Roadhouse Blues, Baron Birtcher
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Roadhouse Blues

Author: Baron Birtcher

Narrator: Michael Butler Murray

Unabridged: 6 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/10/2024


Synopsis

"Enjoyable entertainment . . . a mystery/suspense novel with links to classic rock history and mythology" featuring recovering detective Mike Travis (Foreword).

After twenty years at the LAPD Homicide Bureau, Mike Travis is finally retiring and starting over on Santa Catalina Island. In the small town of Avalon, he lives and works on his yacht, sailing and chartering scuba diving trips. There, among tourists and quirky locals, he tries to banish the residual darkness from his mind. It's not that easy, especially when the one case he never solved comes back to haunt him . . .

A murdered woman on Venice Beach bears all the signs of the serial killer Travis had been tracking before he retired: a single stab wound to the heart, a series of deep cuts on the left hand, and a cryptic message—this time, a grisly computer-generated image of a lizard. To finally finish what the killer has started, all Travis must do is get as far into the madman's head as he can before the next victim is targeted—and then hope he can crawl back out again . . .

About Baron Birtcher

Baron Birtcher spent a number of years as a professional musician and founded an independent record label and management company. His first two novels, Roadhouse Blues and Ruby Tuesday, are Los Angeles Times and Independent Mystery Booksellers Association bestsellers. Birtcher has been nominated for a number of literary awards, including the Nero Award for his novel Hard Latitudes, the Claymore Award for his novel Rain Dogs, and the Left Coast Crime "Lefty" Award for his novel Angels Fall. He was the 2016 Silver Falchion Award winner for his novel Hard Latitudes and the 2018 Winner of the Killer Nashville Reader's Choice Award for his novel South California Purples.

Birtcher currently divides his time between Portland, Oregon, and Kona, Hawaii.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Evelyn on May 08, 2025

Roadhouse Blues is a brilliantly textured crime novel that fuses a haunting cold case with the evocative pull of classic rock history, delivering a noir mystery soaked in regret, atmosphere, and a palpable sense of time slipping through the cracks. Mike Travis, now adrift on the water after years in......more

Goodreads review by Mary on May 08, 2025

With Roadhouse Blues, Birtcher delivers a noir-flavored mystery that hums with danger, grief, and echoes of a bygone rock-and-roll era, following Mike Travis, a retired homicide detective turned yacht-dwelling charter captain, as he’s pulled back into a chilling case that once defined and nearly des......more

Goodreads review by Lacey on May 06, 2025

If Mike Travis were a song, he’d be an old blues track on vinyl scarred, soulful, and a little out of tune with the world around him. Roadhouse Blues is not a thriller for the faint of heart. It’s soaked in shadows, guilt, and that slow burning kind of madness that only builds when you’ve stared at......more

Goodreads review by Emma on May 08, 2025

Baron Birtcher’s Roadhouse Blues is a slow-burning, character driven detective novel that mixes the grit of noir with the wistfulness of classic rock, delivering a deeply moody and engaging story about one man’s inability to outrun his past. Mike Travis is not just your typical jaded ex-cop he’s lay......more

Goodreads review by Louis on May 08, 2025

Roadhouse Blues is a masterful blend of crime fiction, classic rock mythology, and psychological depth, anchored by the deeply haunted Mike Travis a retired LAPD homicide detective whose attempt at peace on Catalina Island is disrupted by the reappearance of an unsolved case. Baron Birtcher’s prose......more