Synopses & Reviews
Linnbert "Cheese" Oliver, hard-luck high school basketball hero in the northwestern town of North Fork, is missing on a late-night ferry. And for real estate agent Ernie Creekmore, his father figure, friend, and former coach, the news hits hard. Ernies suffered too much loss and pain in his life—his wife, a state basketball championship, a mysterious medical malady—and he just can't accept the idea that Cheese might have taken his own life. Working with sheriffs detective Harvey Johnston, Ernie uses his contacts in real estate and hoops to trace Cheeses movements. Meanwhile, hints at possible foul play turn up in pieces of North Forks rough-and-tumble history in fishing, logging, and railroading, and the past and the present violently collide in a series of heart-stopping moments that peel back layers of greed, secrets, and twisted family ties that refuse to stay buried.
Review
"
Cold Crossover is a riveting mystery based on the drama of small-town high school basketball, complete with the missed shot no local will ever forget. Along the way, Tom Kelly takes the reader from the Northwest’s wild frontier days to its equally crazy present as a real-estate mecca. Kelly weaves the ferries, crabbers, and timber-men of his region into a timeless and page-turning tale."
—Jim Ragsdale, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"A long-time coach goes on a search for the best player he ever had in a mystery that will keep you reading deep into the roots of its Pacific Northwest setting."
—Danny O’Neil, Seattle Times
"Award-winning real estate writer Tom Kelly makes a terrific transition into fiction, offering a small-town hero as the center of a big-time story. Kelly clearly knows his territory, including the energy and emotions surrounding a state high-school basketball tournament. A successful merging of past and present, Cold Crossover catches some colorful characters along the way to its captivating climax."
—Alan J. Heavens, Philadelphia Inquirer
About the Author
Cold Crossover is
Tom Kellys first step into fiction and the first of the Ernie Creekmore series. The second book in the series,
Hovering Above a Homicide, will be released in Spring, 2013.
Tom served The Seattle Times readers for 20 years, first as a sportswriter and later as real estate reporter, columnist and editor. His weekly features now appear in a variety of newspapers including the Miami Herald, Houston Chronicle, Portland Oregonian, Louisville Courier-Journal, Tacoma News Tribune and Spokane Spokesman-Review plus hundreds of websites.
His ground-breaking book How a Second Home Can Be Your Best Investment (McGraw-Hill, written with economist John Tuccillo) showed consumers and professionals how one additional piece of real estate could serve as an investment, recreation and retirement property over time.
His other books include Real Estate Boomers and Beyond: Exploring the Costs, Choices and Changes of Your Next Move (Dearborn-Kaplan); The New Reverse Mortgage Formula (John Wiley & Sons); Cashing In on a Second Home in Mexico (Crabman Publishing, written with Mitch Creekmore), Cashing In on a Second Home in Central America (Crabman Publishing, written with Mitch Creekmore and Jeff Hornberger), and Bargains Beyond the Border (Crabman Publishing).
Toms award-winning radio show “Real Estate Today” has aired for 19 years on KIRO, the CBS affiliate in Seattle. The program also has been syndicated in 40 domestic markets and to 450 stations in 160 foreign countries via Armed Forces Radio.
Tom and his wife, Jodi, Dean of the Humanities College at Seattle University, have four children and live on Bainbridge Island, WA.