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A sniper.

 A surf contest. 

A father with everything to lose.

Pismo Beach Sniper

A Thad Hanlon/ Bri de la Guerra Mystery Book 3

by Topper Jones

Genre: Private Investigator Mystery 

When sniper fire erupts at the Central Coast Surf Trials at Pismo Beach, private investigator Thad Hanlon is thrust into every parent’s worst nightmare. His eleven-year-old son and two teammates are shot while surfing—one critically injured—plunging the contest into chaos and terrorizing the tight-knit Five Cities beach community.

The shooter disappears, torching his hideout, leaving only questions in his wake. Random attack—or the first move in a deadly game? Why target young surfers? And is the marksman finished…or just getting started?

Urged by desperate parents, Hanlon and his sharp-witted partner, Bri de la Guerra, race to protect the kids as they train for the upcoming West Coast Championships. But as the detective duo close in on the sniper, they uncover a chilling truth: the surf team isn’t his ultimate target—and the nightmare is far from over.

This gripping thriller will keep you turning pages late into the night.

 

What Critics Are Saying

“Engaging characters, wit, and suspense elevate this rip-curling page-turner.”

— Kirkus Reviews

 

“Pismo Beach Sniper is a tense and fast-moving mystery with real emotional stakes. The target audience is readers who enjoy mystery, private investigator fiction, crime thrillers, action suspense, coastal noir, and family-driven detective series. Readers who like Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novels may appreciate the same mix of banter, loyalty, and wounded-hearted heroism, though Jones swaps Los Angeles grit for Central Coast surf and spiritual undertow.”

— Literary Titan   

 

“It felt like I was reading something akin to James Patterson: fast, frighteningly imaginative, and furious with action. Pismo Beach Sniper is a deftly plotted story of a man doing everything to keep his child safe in a world where not only waves can kill.”

—R. Oserio, Readers’ Favorite Reviews

 

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Chapter 1

I was sitting under a beach canopy in the spectator section of the California Central Coast Surf Trials, watching the first heat of the semifinals, when I heard the sonic crack of a large firearm. Something long-range like the scoped high-precision rifle my business partner, Bri, uses to qualify at the Five Cities Shoot’n Center.

“What was that?” my son’s surf coach asked. Gev Burian was sitting on my left. “Sounded like it came from behind us.”

Bri de la Guerra, on my right, stood to check things out. “Cityside, yeah. I’m thinking .30 cal. Maybe three-oh-eight.”

I swiveled to scan the low-rise buildings of downtown Pismo—the seafood cafes, souvenir shops, and beach rentals. Clumps of tourists meandering down narrow Pomeroy Avenue stopped. Some gazed skyward, herd-like, examining the highest roofline—the old Hotel Pier Vista. Others rushed indoors.

When a second blast didn’t happen soon after, I saw pedestrians raise their palms in the classic “what’s up” shrug before continuing their weekend saunter. Some, trailing well-groomed dogs on leashes, took refuge in their smartphones.

I turned to face the Pacific as Bri sat in her folding chair. Coach Gev got out his binocs and we rejoined the hundreds of other parents, friends, and supporters along the beach to watch the tournament.

Three junior surfers, ages eleven to twelve—”grommets” in surf jargon—were perched on their boards 100 yards offshore in the chilly morning waters north of Pismo Pier. The contestants wore different colored jerseys over their wetsuits. Red jersey had priority takeoff; the next wave was his. As the kids waited for the sets to roll in, they bobbed in the mushy surf like sitting ducks.

“Yellow’s down!” Coach Gev shouted. He handed me his binoculars. “The kid’s slumped sideways off his board.”

“Cramp, maybe?” I pressed the field glasses to the bridge of my nose, fiddling with the adjustments. “January water temps are cold, fifty-three, fifty-four degrees. These temps? He should have worn a 5/4/3 mm instead. Maybe even a—”

There was a second sonic crack. I watched Yellow’s board splinter into pieces. Chunks of the foam core ringed the downed contestant as he struggled to keep his head above water.

Red jersey, closest to Yellow, dropped prone and paddled with fury toward him. Just as he was about to grab Yellow’s arm, I heard shot three. There was a splash near the tail of Red’s board.

Red turned turtle, flipping his tri-fin surfboard over so the bottom faced the sky. Only his hands, gripping the sides of the shortboard, were exposed.

Shot four took out Red’s middle fin. Shots five and six took out the two outer fins. Red let go of his board and sank out of view.

That left the eleven-year-old in the light blue jersey as the only contender sitting on the water. My son, Zael, was in full competition mode, hyper-focused on The One Thing—a wave with his name on it. A wave built by the sea gods just for him, for his performance, his tricks, the ones he’d stick. The 10-rating he’d be awarded by all three judges. That perfect ten.

Zael was in the zone, tunnel vision his ally. Chaos bending to will. He had no clue what had happened to Red and Yellow.

I popped out of my beach chair, sprinted from our shade canopy to the shoreline, and screamed as I waded in. “Duck and cover, Zael! Get down! Now!” I waved my arms, zigzagging through the shallows.

My son wasn’t hearing me, wasn’t seeing me, wasn’t even attuned to my panic despite his gift for sensing things unspoken. Zael paddled hard for takeoff, slid into the three-foot wave breaking off the pier, and dropped into the curl. He drove down the line, pumping his board to build speed, then bottom turned, and angled toward the lip to launch into his signature 360-degree air rotation and—

Blam.

Shot seven.

Zael’s right leg buckled. He lost balance and angled into a dive as far away from his board as his leash would let him. When he didn’t come up for air...

Oceano Beach Bedlam

A Thad Hanlon/ Bri de la Guerra Mystery Book 2 

Hanlon & de la Guerra have gone full service. In this second book in the surfing crime-fighter mystery series, Thad Hanlon and his martial-arts-obsessed partner, Bri de la Guerra, hang out their shingle as newly licensed private investigators. Now in addition to fraud-busting, the two detectives do it all. Background checks. Surveillance. Even finding lost souls. Just about anything that requires sleuthing or going undercover.

All they need is a client.

That’s when a former exotic dancer from Bakersfield CA shows up looking for her surf prodigy son who’s gone missing in the wake of cult violence terrorizing the California Central Coast.

 

What Critics Are Saying

“A crunchy detective novel set in the world of California surfers. Jones delivers a proper beach read, both in form and content.”

-Kirkus Reviews

 

“Honestly, I had a blast with this one. Oceano Beach Bedlam is a smart and entertaining read. If you like your mysteries with surfboards, sass, and just enough heart to keep you caring, this one’s for you. It’s a great pick for fans of offbeat detectives, fast dialogue, and sun-drenched noir with a brain and a soul. I’d recommend it to readers who enjoy Janet Evanovich, Robert Crais, or the beachier edges of Elmore Leonard.”

— Literary Titan  

 

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All That Glisters

A Thad Hanlon/ Bri de la Guerra Mystery Book 1

When the facts don’t add up in his surf buddy’s bizarre death, forensic consultant (and daddy-to-be) Thaddeus Hanlon investigates, volunteering to go undercover to pick up where best friend Rafi Silva left off in a secret probe of the U.S. gold stockpile—every last bullion bar.

Rafi’s spunky fiancée, Bri de la Guerra, has suspicions of her own and soon joins Thad on the hunt for answers. Together, the two amateur sleuths delve deep, stumbling onto a financial a-stock-alypse in the making, triggering a brutal manhunt along the Eastern seaboard meant to silence anyone looking to set the ledger straight.

 

What Critics Are Saying

“Jones’ action-packed murder mystery...is tension-fueled with plenty of twists and two appealing sleuths. In this detective series opener, Thad Hanlon, a 27-year-old forensic accountant, becomes the target of a murderous cadre when he accepts a new assignment that takes him from Los Angeles to the East Coast center of power. Woven into the gripping plot are sensual, detailed descriptions of Thad’s adventures riding the waves, which should please the surfer crowd and afford others a visceral sense of the experience.”

—Kirkus Reviews

 

“All That Glisters by Topper Jones is well-written with not a single dull moment. I liked the way the author included elements of action, mystery, and even some cyber investigating. Overall, I found this book to be an amazing read.”

—Sefina Hawke, Readers’ Favorite Reviews

 

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What inspired you to write this book? 

The inspiration for each of my books has been a little different. For ALL THAT GLISTERS, it was reading Coma, a medical thriller by Robin Cook, and thinking to myself: If a doctor can write a medical thriller, why can’t a CPA write a financial thriller? For OCEANO BEACH BEDLAM, it was a drive along the shore of Oceano Beach, CA, and watching a guy on a tractor dragging a sand rake across the beach to clean up debris. For PISMO BEACH SNIPER, it was a working title—CowaBANGa!—a mashup of two popular exclamations that seemed incapable of being together: (1) Cowabunga!—surf slang for “Dude, that was Awwwwsome!”, and (2) BANG!, the sonic crack of a high-powered rifle. 

What each inspiration has in common is the germ of a preposterous premise—an idea that demands attention.

Here are the preposterous premises for each book in the Thad Hanlon & Bri de la Guerra Series:

 

ALL THAT GLISTERS — What if a secret audit of the U.S. gold stockpile by two surfing buddies found the gold was fake?

OCEANO BEACH BEDLAM — What if a teen surf legend was in the wrong place at the wrong time and learned of an impending eco-terrorism plot to blow up Moy Mell—the California Central Coast spiritual haven nestled in the dunes—to liberate it from desecration by ATVs and dune buggies?

PISMO BEACH SNIPER — What if a deadly sniper starts using local surfers, waiting for their next wave, as target practice?

Who designed your book cover?

A million thanks to Lea Schizas, my cover artist (and multitalented editor) at The Wild Rose Press, for bringing the PISMO BEACH SNIPER cover to life.

Here’s the Cover Design Backstory

Working off the “sniper” theme suggested by the book’s title, I created three simple mockups in Canva of surfers under threat.

The first involved a pair of surfers carrying their boards to the water. From a sniper’s perspective, easy targets.  

The second featured a surfer sitting alone in the lineup, waiting for a wave. A sitting duck.  

The third showed a surfer emerging from a barrel wave, locked in the tube as the crest cascaded overhead while a sniper steadied his rifle and centered his sights. 

Focus Group Testing

One of the perks of belonging to a weekly writing critique circle is having a built-in focus group. I brought the three concepts to my writers' improvement group and asked them to rank their favorites.

The vote was unanimous.

When it comes to a sniper target, they preferred the surfer emerging from the barrel wave.

Barrel wave. Rifle barrel. 

Visual irony. A memorable image. Unanimous approval from the focus group.

Hard to argue with that.

What Is Your General Vision or Concept for the Cover?

As part of the publication process, The Wild Rose Press asks authors to provide cover design input. Here’s the description I submitted:

PISMO BEACH SNIPER is the third volume in the Thad Hanlon & Bri de la Guerra Mystery Series. This tale opens with a crazed marksman taking potshots at Pismo Beach surfers during the California Central Coast Surf Trials. Surf culture and the beach scene play an important part in the fabric of the series’ imagery. 

My vision for the cover is a brooding scene of a surfer emerging from deep inside a barrel wave. The lighting is moody and high-contrast, with deep shadows and a cold, glassy texture to the water, and spray frozen in sharp detail. The surfer is a teenager, but not resembling any real person, wearing a dark wetsuit with a blue surf competition jersey, face tense and focused, body leaning forward on the surfboard as the wave begins to close around him. A sniper rifle crosshair reticle is centered directly on the surfer’s head. 

At the top of the cover is the mystery series banner (Surfer icon followed by “A Thad Hanlon & Bri de la Guerra Mystery”). Just below that is the author's pen name using a similar style font as was used for ALL THAT GLISTERS and OCEANO BEACH BEDLAM. At the bottom of the cover is the book title. I’d suggest a grunge or distressed font. If the lettering allows it, a bullet hole through the “O” in Pismo would help emphasize the danger presented by the sniper’s crosshairs.

From there, Lea worked her magic.

She took the written description and transformed it into the dazzling cover you see today. Talk about attention-grabbing artwork! Lea perfectly captured the tension, danger, and surf culture at the heart of PISMO BEACH SNIPER.

If you could spend time with a character from your book, whom would it be? And what would you do during that day? 

Abril “Bri” de la Guerra. Why Abril? Bri, as she’s known to her besties, is a sassy, kick-butt thirty-something woman who doesn’t know the meaning of “No.” Her family hails from Spanish aristocracy that settled California. As a member of the landed gentry owning swaths of the Central Coast from Santa Barbara south to the Santa Susana Mountains, Bri always gets what she wants, even if it means rewriting the rules.

Bri and I would do a little client development, prospecting for new cases. With Book Three finished, I’m looking for the next big mystery to solve in the Five Cities area. Maybe one of Bri’s contacts with a vicious reputation and a temper to match, someone who’s been wrongfully accused of murder—wrong place, wrong time, wrong victim. Could be interesting.

By day’s end, after having exhausted all the potential prospects, we’d head over to Splash Café for fresh clam chowder, then walk down to Pismo Pier to watch the sun drop into the Pacific.

 

Writing as Topper Jones, award-winning author Christopher G. Jones, Ph.D., delivers detective fiction with a dash of romance, plenty of action, and memorable characters. His Thad Hanlon & Bri de la Guerra Mystery Series has earned Readers’ Favorite Five Stars and the Literary Titan Gold Book Awards.

 Before writing full-time, Jones taught financial reporting and business systems development at the university level and worked in public accounting and consulting. He is a member of The Private Eye Writers of America and International Thriller Writers, and an affiliate of Mystery Writers of America.

 To stay close to family, Jones now lives in the southwestern desert rather than his native California. But when the surf’s up, he’ll make the 450-mile trek to the coast for a little “water therapy.”

 

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