Andy Straka
Andy is a native of upstate New York and a graduate of Williams College where, as co-captain of the basketball team, he "double-majored" in English and the crossover dribble.
A licensed falconer and co-founder of the popular Crime Wave at the annual Virginia Festival of the Book, he is the author of five novels. Four belong to the Frank Pavlicek mystery series featuring a former NYPD detective turned Virginia private investigator and falconer: A Witness Above (Anthony, Agatha, and Shamus Award finalist), A Killing Sky (Anthony Award Finalist), Cold Quarry (Shamus Award Winner,), and the most recent Kitty Hitter. A standalone novel, Record Of Wrongs, was also hailed by Mystery Scene magazine as "a first-rate thriller."
A father of six, Andy lives with his family in Virginia. Current projects include the “Adult Fiction for Teens” version of A Witness Above incorporating a falconry primer and a recently completed sixth novel. Andy is also at work on his Masters Degree in Creative Writing.
andystraka.com
ADULT FICTION
FOR TEENS
With BONUS
Falconry Primer
for Teens
September, 2011
ISBN 978-0-9659419-7-6
Paperback
5.5” x 8.5”
292 Pages $15
Thirteen years ago, Frank Pavlicek left the NYPD under less than ideal circumstances. Now, he works as a private investigator in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he tries to live outside the shadow of his past. . . .
In this first book from the Frank Pavlicek Mystery Series, the divorced Frank is hoping to rebuild a relationship with his college-bound daughter, Nicole, with whom he shares a passion for falconry. While hunting with his red-tailed hawk, Armistead, he makes a terrible discovery–a teenage boy’s body concealed behind a pile of brush of the forest Frank recently visited with Nicole. It’s a gruesome scene–one of the many things Frank doesn’t miss about working homicide in the city. Worse, he finds Nicole’s phone number in the boy’s wallet and decides to pocket the evidence. Days later, Nicole is in jail. Frank’s past is coming back to haunt him. And his reputation–and life–are on the line. . . . "Storytelling as sharp and strong as talons..." "Aside from good writing, an interesting plot, and the unusual aspect of the falconry, it's nice to see someone come along with a new P.I. who is not drowning in wisecracks. Andy Straka has managed to avoid the more obvious clichés of the genre while continuing to pay homage to the conventions of it ... Straka should be proud..."
RICK RIORDAN -- #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
ROBERT J. RANDISI -- Founder, Private Eye Writers of America
