MEET: Frank Zafiro and Colin Conway
Colin and Frank have teamed up to write the Charlie-316 series, police procedurals with an injection of city-level politics. Charlie-316, the first in the series, examines a police shooting and its aftermath, following everyone involved—the police officer, investigators, leaders, and politicians—as the event causes seismic ripples in the community. The saga surrounding this shooting lasts four books before reaching an end to the story arc. The fifth in the series, The Ride-Along, is a contemporary, balanced examination of policing through two very different sets of eyes over the course of a graveyard patrol shift.
Currently, Colin and Frank are working on the latest book, The Silence of the Dead. This ambitious procedural features multiple generations of police investigators as they strive to solve a series of murders that take place over nearly six decades.
Frank Zafiro writes gritty crime fiction from both sides of the badge. He was a police officer from 1993 to 2013, retiring as a captain. After retirement, he taught leadership at police agencies across the US and Canada for four years, before retiring completely in order to write full-time. He is the author of over fifty novels, many of them crime stories, though he also writes mainstream fiction under his given name (Frank Scalise) and fantasy and science fiction as Frank Saverio.
Frank’s crime fiction includes his River City series (police procedurals with an ensemble cast). Currently, he is working on the fifteenth novel in that series, Nor Shadowed Heart. In each outing, the officers and detectives of the RCPD confront a major obstacle, such as murder, robbery, kidnapping, or other crimes. Meanwhile, the reader also gets a glimpse of their personal lives as they cope with the rigors of police work. In River City, the cops are the good guys and they usually win… but not always… and never without a cost.
In addition to writing, Frank is an avid hockey fan and a tortured guitarist. He lives in Redmond, Oregon, with his wife, who remains simultaneously his biggest fan and critic.
You can keep up with him at http://frankzafiro.com. His books are available at:
Colin Conway is the creator of the 509 Crime Stories, the Cozy Up Series, the John Cutler Mysteries, and several others. He served in the U.S. Army and later worked as a police officer. Along with writing crime fiction, Colin is a commercial real estate broker and investor. He lives in Eastern Washington with his girlfriend and a codependent Vizsla that rules their world. He’s currently working on Cozy Up to Mystery. Imagine if The Sons of Anarchy crashed into an episode of Murder, She Wrote, and you’ll have the hilarious premise for the Cozy Up series. The protagonist, Beau Smith, is a former enforcer for a criminal biker gang. He’s in the Witness Protection Program and hiding in places like Cabot Cove. It’s not easy for him when he’s 6’3, 225 pounds, and covered in tattoos. Whenever something goes wrong, the townsfolk always point to Beau since he’s the new guy
Here is Colin's latest:
Private investigator John Cutler's newest client makes a shocking claim - her missing boyfriend is the father he never met. His life will never be the same.
Learn more about Colin at: https://store.colinconway.com where his books are also available.
Both Frank and Colin can also be found on Amazon.com. I would like to add another book to those mentioned: The Tattered Blue Line: Short Stories of Contemporary Policing, which Frank has edited, and in which are short stories by both Frank and Colin. A very interesting read.
Thanks to you both for guesting!
I especially enjoyed Frank and Colin's The Ride-Along. You read about events like those they describe in the news every day, but you rarely get a meaningful, 360-degree perspective.
Love hearing about these two wonderful authors. Thanks!
Thonie Hevron
Thanks so much for hosting us and sharing our work on your blog!
-- Frank
I read "The Ride-Along," and I found it very revealing. It shows not only the mechanics of policing but its psychological effects on police officers as well as the "public." Cheers, John G. Bluck