Available September 1, 2006
Published by Capital Crime Press
ISBN: 0-9776276-9-1
Trade Paperback; 256 pages; $14.95
Distributed by SCB, available through Ingram, and Baker & Taylor
ANTHONY AWARD Finalist
BOOK OF THE YEAR Finalist, Foreword Magazine
EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD Finalist, Allbooks Review
"Robert Fate's first novel, Baby Shark, is a dynamite read. The tightly written plot will have your pulse racing, your heart pounding, and leave you breathless until the very end."
Andrea Maloney
Spintingler Magazine
BABY SHARK
Robert Fate
Grade: A-
Plot: 17-year old female pool hustler in Abilene,
Texas, goes looking for the men who murdered her
father.
Pros: Fate does many things well: Great revenge plot;
terrific characters; good pacing and suspense; great
sense of place and time (1950s).
Cons: The book sometimes has a bit of a "pulp fiction"
feel. Fate hasn't really expanded the genre or done
anything remarkably different, but rides a very
distinctive groove in what feels like a true homage to
the genre.
Overall: A robust, vigorous book, sometimes a little
violent, but the work of a superior storyteller with
some room to grow.
Reviewed by: Brian Thompson
"This book is going places. It is perfect, the writing tight and spare, the story heartbreaking. Go out and buy it as soon as you can. Trust me on this one."
"Texas noir at its best."
"If you like your women hot and your revenge cold, this is the story for you. Baby Shark's Kristin takes names, and dishes pain as well as the hardboiled boys Spade and Marlowe."
"Top notch, the story won't let you stop reading. Baby Shark is such a sexy cool character-I'm in love."
Baby Shark's BEAUMONT BLUES
Available May 2007
Published by Capital Crime Press
ISBN: 0977627624
Trade Paperback 286 pages
Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues
by Robert Fate
In the eagerly awaited sequel to the novel "Baby Shark," Kristin "Baby Shark" Van Dijk returns to wage war against the bad guys. After all, the pearly gates are open day and night and as readers know from the first book, Baby Shark is certainly highly motivated to kill men who abuse women. Them and anyone else that needs killing and a lot of folks need killing.
It is 1956, a couple of years after the last book concluded, and Baby Shark has her Private Investigators License. She has also teamed up with Otis Millett and is now a partner in his detective agency. Their current case is to rescue-again a certain young lady who once she turns eighteen is going to be incredibly wealthy. Baby Shark does rescue Sherry in a violent shootout that unfortunately for Baby Shark and Otis, leaves clues to their identities and a trail for a Beaumont mobster mad for his money. It doesn't help that quite possibly Sherry is more trouble than she is worth.
Like the first in the series, this novel is another high-powered ride. It follows the same basic formula of a violent opening, a romance for Baby Shark beginning around the middle of the book, and another violent showdown at the end. In between little character development happens as these characters were pretty much formed in the first novel but there are plenty of skirmishes with bad guys and bullets. With the barest of mentions of the preceding novel, it could easily be read as a stand alone. However, for those that have read the first book, they will get more out of it.
A couple of years have passed which just means that everyone is pretty much set in his or her ways regarding how life is and how things should be dealt with when they come up. If it's bad, moving or not, shoot and kill it. The result is an intense action novel that takes the reader on a heck of a thrill ride.
-Kevin R. Tipple, Mouth Full of Bullets
Baby Shark's BEAUMONT BLUES
by Robert Fate
Greed is a fabulous motive.
Like you, I'm sure, I've read about crimes of passion, cold-hearted revenge, serial killers with traumatic memories of everything from radishes to butterflies, mass murderers on the rampage, good men made desperate, good cops gone bad, bad cops gone good - you name it, it's out there.
But greed, that's got to be one of the best. It implies a certain cunning, promises a mystery with lots of machination and villains with cramped, crooked little corridors of thought.
You can really get your teeth into greed.
Robert Fate's take on this theme starts out with a simple assignment for private investigators Kristin and Otis; a repeat, really, of a fairly straightforward task they'd accomplished for this client once before. Find the missing heiress. Bring her home. The game, however, was afoot far before our heroes became involved, and not all of the players are what they appear to be.
So - lots of action, great 50s Texas setting, authentic and flavorful dialogue, hugely engrossing main characters. But what really makes this book stand out in a crowd?
Kristin, the Baby Shark. She's a dark horse with an even darker past, taking names all over the place at a time when women were expected to play very traditional roles. People drop like stones around Kristin. Bullets fly, knives slice. I really enjoyed watching her use people's assumptions and biases against them. What a great contrast to larger-than-life partner Otis.
Finally, and most importantly, she grows. She breaches her own emotional walls. She begins to care about and identify with people, ever watchful, learning behaviors from those around her and using them to come just a little farther out of herself. It's this transformation, from what the past has made her to what Kristin can make of herself, that elevates this series from your standard action shoot 'em up mystery and makes it a truly marvelous read.
Speaking of greed, I want more. Hurry it up, Mr. Fate.
Jenifer Nightingale / I Love A Mystery
Baby Shark's HIGH PLAINS REDEMPTION by Robert Fate
ISBN: 0-9799960-2-3
Capital Crime Press
287 pages
$14.95
May 2008
Baby Shark's HIGH PLAINS REDEMPTION by Robert Fate
Book Description
May 1957. When Kristin Van Dijk aka Baby Shark and Otis Millett are hired to deliver the ransom for redheaded Savannah Smike, the mysterious piano-playing girlfriend of an Oklahoma bootlegger, they find themselves involved in more trouble than they bargained for. It is kill or be killed from day one.
This action-crime-adventure is quintessential Baby Shark. It careens across two states, leaving a trail of blood and destruction from the tough side of Fort Worth through the southern Ozarks of Oklahoma to the lonesome high plains of the Texas panhandle.
"HIGH PLAINS REDEMPTION is a hugely entertaining pulp-style masterpiece for today's reader.
With bootlegging, billiards, Buicks and babes, this unique series is a blue-ribbon trip down memory
lane."
—Julia Spencer-Fleming, Edgar finalist and author of I SHALL NOT WANT
"It is rare but magic when it happens that a writer makes a character so real they get up and walk off
the page and into your life forever. It's talent. It's Robert Fate writing Baby Shark."
—Kirk Russell, author of the John Marquez Crime Novel series
"Crisply written, vividly felt, full of deadbeats and charmers, and enough action to make you strap on
your .38 while you're reading. It's an American gem!"
—Julia Pomeroy, author of Cold Moon Home and The Dark End of Town
"Gritty and action-packed, Baby Shark's High Plains Redemption delivers a page turning spin down
the back roads of 1950s Texas with some of the most unforgettable characters in crime fiction."
—Dianne Emley, author of Cut to the Quick
Baby Shark, Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues, and Baby
Shark's High Plains Redemption are distributed by SCB
and available through Ingram, and Baker & Taylor
Robert Fate Bealmear
2032 Balmer Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90039
rbealmear@sbcglobal.net
