The Brown & McNeil Murder Mysteries - Book Tour and Giveaway

Philadelphia Detective Vernon Brown and his buddy James McNeil solve high stakes murder mysteries

The Murder Gambit
A Brown & McNeil Murder Mystery Book 1
by Frank Lazarus
Genre: Murder Mystery, Crime Thriller

An unexplained death in a nursing home. A man falls from a balcony. A hit and run in the middle of a city street. An execution in a home. A woman collapses dead after a date.

Five murders. Five methods. Five police jurisdictions.

What's the connection?

Philadelphia-area detectives are under pressure to solve the murders, while dealing with their own issues.

Speeding like the lead car at Talladega towards a shocking conclusion, is The Murder Gambit a Shakespearean tragedy or a sinister reality?


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The Phenom
A Brown & McNeil Murder Mystery Book 2 

Even before he has played his first game in high school, it would seem nothing can stop Bo Campbell's meteoric rise to stardom in the basketball world. In Philadelphia, people are already comparing him to his Overbrook High School predecessor, Wilt Chamberlain.

But his dreams are suddenly shattered when he is arrested for the murder of his best friend, Sherman Claxton.

Detective Vernon Brown, and James McNeil, his friend and Bo's grandfather, search for the truth, but James goes rogue, and soon finds himself in the dangerous underbelly of the Philadelphia drug sub-culture, where the stakes are high and it's hard to tell who's friend and who's foe.


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Frank Lazarus was born and raised in West Philadelphia and attended Overbrook High School, as you may have guessed from his writings.

After graduating high school, Frank spent two years in the U.S. Army during the VietNam War. After his service, he completed his 
Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration at St. Joseph’s University, in Philadelphia.

He was in the Financial Services and Life Insurance industry for fifty-three years before he retired at the end of 2021.

Frank has three adult children and five grandchildren.


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Can you, for those who don’t know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?
I spent fifty-three years in the Financial Services and Life Insurance industry, never thinking much about writing a book or becoming a published author.
With possibly a couple of exceptions: thirty or forty years ago, I read that “everyone has a novel in them.” I once started one, and every five years or so, I add a sentence to it. Secondly, twenty years ago, I started writing a blog. It was private and only shared with friends and family. I considered it an outlet for my Seinfeldish sense of humor and titled it A BLOG ABOUT NOTHING.
I am working on a book that will be THE BEST OF THE BLOG; we’ll see if or when that comes to fruition.
I retired at the end of 2021 and kept busy with golf and COVID hibernating. Towards the end of 2021, a friend shared with me a novel that he had written but was unpublished. I decided to try it, and THE MURDER GAMBIT was born.

What is something unique/quirky about you?
After my divorce in 2006, I spent the next six years serial dating on Match.com and other dating websites. During those six years, I met or dated some 102 women.
Scheduled for 2024 publication, the book about this is entitled THE GOOD, BAD AND UGLY; 102 FIRST DATES.
The book will surely be a hit with those who have experienced online dating or have always wondered about it. I’m not as sure how the 102 women feel about it.

What are some of your pet peeves?
Mostly people!
90% of anyone’s aggravation is caused by the people in their lives. Even people who are not IN their lives, perhaps just dashing through it.
Much of this may be included in THE BEST OF THE BLOG, but there is just so much material that this could be a new book in 2025.

Where were you born/grew up?
The Western section of Philadelphia. Philadelphia and its suburbs are the setting for THE MURDER GAMBIT, and THE PHENOM is mostly set in Philly inter-city.
While I will always have roots, friends, and family in Philadelphia, I now spend more time on Hilton Head Island, SC.

Which of your novels can you imagine being made into a movie?
I am glad you asked. Several fans of my first two novels told me they thought both would make great NetFlix Series’.
I try to keep my phone line open in case they try to reach me.

What inspired you to write this book?
When I first thought forty years ago about writing a novel, I thought it would have a basketball theme, and THE PHENOM AND RECRUITING MURDER are hybrids of that plot.
But the Murder Gambit came out of my work in the life insurance industry. I can’t say much without giving it away, but it is not the typical WIFE KILLS HUSBAND FOR THE LIFE INSURANCE PROCEEDS

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in THE MURDER GAMBIT?
The first thing about the characters in TMG is there are no MAIN characters or protagonist(s). Five people get murdered in the first five chapters, so they are all dead.
There are the deceased families, two detectives looking into each murder, and assorted suspects in each.
Eventually, Vernon Brown, a Philadelphia Detective investigating the death of Lincoln McNeil, and James McNeil, Lincoln’s son, form a bond and take the lead as the plot is revealing itself.
I liked this pair so much that my second book, THE PHENOM, featured them again, and the Brown and McNeil Murder Mystery series was born.

How did you come up with the title of your first novel?
The Queen’s Gambit is a hit series on Netflix, and I looked up the definition of GAMBIT. While often used as a strategic move in chess, it was also defined as A maneuver, stratagem, or opening remark, especially one intended to bring about a desired result
I believe this definition applies to the underlying strategy in THE MURDER GAMBIT.

If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?
Interesting question! I recall writing three different endings for THE PHENOM before settling on the one I used. I still believe I chose the correct one; the other two may have been more predictable. My editor and Significant Other both agreed.

What is your favorite part of this book and why?
In THE PHENOM, there is a Lesbian seduction scene that I wasn’t certain I could write with any authority or conviction. It was so out of character for me, and I received a lot of questions about it from those who know me.
It may not be the highlight of the book, but it was the one I think of proudly.

Have you written any other books that are not published?
The third book (and final?) in the Brown and McNeil Trilogy, RECRUITING MURDER, is scheduled for release in January of 2024.
Other books in development are:
The Good, Bad, and Ugly: 102 First Dates
Is Anything All Right?
April Fool

Fun Facts/Behind the Scenes/Did You Know? type tidbits about the author, the book, or the book's writing process?
Vernon Brown is a hybrid of two Overbrook coaches, Blinky Brown and Vernon Young, but physically resembled Brown.
Other first and last names were also borrowed from people I know or knew.
I took some liberties with some of the locations in both books, but many are factual.
I used my actual boyhood address for one of the suspects in the Gambit. A neighborhood friend caught me on this.

What are your top 10 favorite books/authors?
Sheldon Siegel’s Mike and Rosier Series
James Patterson’s early stuff, and the Women’s Murder Club Series
Daniel Silva
Dan Brown
John Grisham
Michael Connoly
R N Patterson

What book do you think everyone should read?
EXILE, by Richard North Patterson
I learned more about the history of the Arab/Israeli conflict from this book than any other source I have read or seen.

What kind of research do you do before you begin writing a book?
I actually do more research WHILE writing than BEFORE.
For example, in my third novel, I have a potential murder in Emporia, Virginia, part of Greensville County. I needed to research how their court system worked.
And I am constantly on Google Maps, looking at streets, parks, churches, restaurants, etc.

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