The HBS Author's Spotlight SHOWCASES James Moushon's Short Story: Operation Red Dragon.
This Short Story is included in the HBSystems Publications FREE Promotion for the Jonathon Stone Mystery Series. There are 17 short stories in the collection.
Each short story in the series will be FREE in the next few months.
This Short Story is FREE until 03/25/22.
Review
Operation Red Dragon by James Moushon is a very well written and thrilling short story. James’ writing is infectious, and therefore you will not want to put the book down. While reading, you really get to know and understand Jonathan Stone and the book leaves you wanting more. The story contains twists and turns, and I have to say, what a delight it is!
If you enjoy short mysteries/thrillers, then I definitely recommend you read this book. You will not be disappointed.
FREE Stones
Operation Red Dragon
A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story
Author: James Moushon
AVAILABLE
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An assassin on the job and Stone takes a gamble.
Jonathon Stone’s plans for a quiet gambling experience are interrupted by the sighting of a known gun for hire from Mexico. A casual weekend in the desert for Jonathon changes into an apparent assassination plot. With the FBI and the Secret Service involved, Jonathon tries to apprehend the elusive hitman before he can do damage.
Excerpt from Operation Red Dragon
I’d been on alert for about a week now as a backup for one of our units. They were in hot pursuit of a terrorist cell in the Detroit area. Finally, I got the call from a unit leader. “See you next time. They are gone.”
So I was off to the high desert for a weekend of R and R.
Palm Springs was about two hours away and filled all my basic needs. It was much warmer than the beach in the winter time. And best of all they had a casino with great rooms and a bar close by.
I had called ahead and got the last room, I was told. That’s what happens when you build up some juice with the pit boss.
As I got to the turnoff, the Long Arrow Casino stood tall in the distance. It was about two miles off the highway. The casino’s large hotel stood like a small mountain ahead in the distance. As I approached the first major intersection, I realized I had a problem. I needed to turn right to get on the main street to the casino and the street was blocked off with large barricades. This had caught the other drivers by surprise, also. The right lane was very slow as each car had to change their plans at the intersection.
Well, it looks like I was headed downtown whether I wanted to or not. I continued down the road for about three miles until I finally found an intersection that would allow a right turn. I could still see the hotel jutting above the surrounding resorts and golf courses.
This was a very exclusive neighborhood. There was one more major street before I would be clear to go ahead to the casino. There were barricades in this intersection, like the others, but something was different here. There were lots of demonstrators carrying signs and chanting. You could tell this was well-organized. I counted four large buses along the curb.
After a slight delay as cars slowed down to take a good look, I proceeded down the street. I could care less about the demonstration. I had a date with a blackjack dealer and I could taste the cold beer already.
After the express treatment at the check-in counter, I dumped my bag in the room and headed for the casino.
The time delay and traffic were not what I expected. But now I was in the world I loved.
The cards started off running hot and cold. Up a thousand. Down a thousand. But drinks kept coming and the cocktail waitress was good looking.
The pit boss and I finally touched bases.
“Good to see you, Jon. Is your room okay?” “Excellent as always, Pete.”
Pete Serronie had been the head pit boss since the casino had opened. His very distinctive accent said he was from back East, Brooklyn I think. Every time I’d seen him, he had on a dark suit and a bow tie. “Anything you need, just holler.”
Pete liked the idea that I started my bank at five thousand dollars. I guess he thought he had a chance at getting some of it.
I got on a good run and doubled my money. I always told myself it was all about the action but I liked winning a lot. I motioned to the dealer to mark my spot. I got up to stretch my legs and hit the head. I walked around the pit, watching the winter visitors playing the slots. A jackpot always got a shout and that annoying music from the victorious machine.
As I wondered around the blackjack pit, I checked the other tables. Most of them had low-end limits.
I preferred the high-limit table. At least there I could get a good game where players knew how to play and most of the time I could get a seat. As I got closer to my table, I did a double-take. The dealer was attractive but that wasn’t what got my attention. I recognized one of the players at another table. I stood there staring at him. Where did I know this guy from? He looked up from his cards directly at me. I waited a moment and he looked back down and continued to play his hand. I needed to get a picture of this guy…
Author Genre: Mystery & Thrillers, Satire
Website: James Moushon - Mystery Writer / Author Advocate
Author's Blog: Indie Author’s Corner
HBS Author's Spotlight
Twitter: @jimhbs
E-Mail: james.moushon@gmail.com
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Amazon Author Profile and Book List
Author Description: James Moushon is a Mystery writer and an Author Advocate. All his novels and short stories feature CIA Agent Jonathon Stone.
James is currently wearing two Hats. He is a Mystery Writer and a Book Publishing Blogger. You can find his blogs at:
HBS Author’s Spotlight
The blog's purpose is to help authors get exposure in the book publishing industry. He has interviewed and showcased over 600 authors to date.
Mystery Reader’s Circle
The HBS Mystery Reader's Circle provides information about the latest novels and what is coming next from a collection of Bestselling and Outstanding Authors in the Mystery, Thrillers, Historical Fiction and Crime genre.
Indie Author's Corner The Corner is a collection of Author advice and studies including Marketing, Social Media and other major topics created to help writers in today's ever changing world of book publishing.
He has spent the majority of his adult life developing computer systems and thinking about writing mysteries.
Author's Book List
TIMEOUT!
The wind was blowing briskly off the ocean with a slight mist in the air.
Jonathon was dispatched to San Diego with Chuck Chun, another CIA special agent. The CIA had received an alert. A notorious arms dealer was arriving in San Diego with a large number of guns and explosives on a freighter from the Far East. This dealer had been very elusive for a long time.
At the same time, FBI Agent Jodi Shannon and Agent Brian Baker from LA join the San Diego FBI field office team in a joint investigation. Their assignment: Get to the bottom of a white-collar crime, sports fixing.”
At the center of things was Willy Payne, a veteran basketball player for the San Diego Bays. He quickly becomes the focus of both investigations.
Eventually, Payne runs out of time.
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Operation Bank Withdrawal - A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story
Several heists in downtown LA cause a National Security problem.
A bank robbery in downtown LA is one in a series of heists being investigated by the FBI. As FBI Agent Jodi Shannon tries to catch the robbers, a fingerprint in the wrong place gets Jonathon Stone involved. The history of old town Los Angeles provides the key to solving the crime and preventing a National Security disaster.
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Operation Arrow Drone - A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story
An FBI agent is murdered, and a group of terrorists are the primary suspects.
Jonathon Stone and FBI Agent Jodi Shannon team up to investigate the murder of an FBI agent who was auditing a classified project that had gone astray. The agent had gotten caught in the middle of a mass shooting at a Naval Air Station. The violence accelerates as Jonathon tries to catch a group of terrorists and avoid a disaster in Southern California.
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Operation Raging Bull - A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story
An American traitor seeks refuge in a sanctuary city.
The FBI believes there is US troop information being leaked to rebels in Syria. After a special meeting in San Francisco, Jonathon Stone and Dale Oak, who is already undercover in Detroit, are assigned the operation.
The FBI is asking for D.O.T.’s help because of their problems dealing with sanctuary city policies in the area. As Stone narrows it down to one suspect, the operation unexpectedly expands.
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Operation Key Witness - A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story
A witness against a terrorist is in danger and Stone is on alert.
Jonathon Stone and Chuck Chun are assigned to escort a witness from the Philippines to LA to testify against her terrorist husband. After an air marshal is killed in flight, Jonathon and Chuck go on high alert.
The CIA team finds out there is a professional hit contract on the witness, and it is non-exclusive. The twists and turns of the op lead the two into the Islamic World of terror.
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Operation Adrift - A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story
A ship with no passengers leads to a terrorist plot.
An empty cargo ship suddenly appears in the LA Harbor. Problem: there are no passengers or crew. Jonathon Stone finds out that the ship was abandoned at sea and the CIA had been tracking the vessel from the Far East. The op seems to be stalled until Jonathon gets information from an unexpected source which leads him to a terrorist plot on American soil.
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Operation Misdirection - A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story
A dead CIA agent leads Stone to investigate a Middle East connection.
A female CIA agent is found dead in a motel in Long Beach and her husband, a Long Beach detective, quickly becomes the prime suspect. Jonathon Stone is given the task of investigating the murder of one of his own. His findings reveal the dead agent’s unscheduled trips to the Middle East, a cover-up by the FBI, and espionage.
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Operation Runaway - A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story
A Hawaiian espionage case is solved at a luau.
NSA information leaked by a spy sends Jonathon Stone and his fellow agent, Chuck Chun to Hawaii to stop the flow of information. Is our suspect a whistleblower or is it espionage? Their assignment: neutralize and stop the flow of information. At a luau in Paradise, they get help from an unlikely source before Jonathon and Chuck can complete their mission.
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Operation Red Dragon - A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story
An assassin on the job and Stone takes a gamble.
Jonathon Stone’s plans for a quiet gambling experience are interrupted by the sighting of a known gun for hire from Mexico. A casual weekend in the desert for Jonathon changes into an apparent assassination plot. With the FBI and the Secret Service involved, Jonathon tries to apprehend the elusive hitman before he can do damage.
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Kindle Unlimited
Operation Listen Close - A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story
Murder by a terrorist needs Stone’s bag of tricks to solve.
A man is found dead in the trunk of a cab in downtown LA and an FBI investigation reveals that Jonathon Stone is connected to the murder. The Victim: A Chinese Special Agent on assignment in the US. The Suspect: A Russian cabbie who is wanted for terrorism in Hong Kong. Stone and Chuck Chun go into the CIA bag of tricks to solve the murder.
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Operation Little Havana - A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story
Stone is in the middle of an international crisis because his suspects don’t want to play ball.
Jonathon Stone teams up with FBI Agent Maria Sanchez in Miami to try to solve the murder attempt of an exiled Cuban baseball player. As news stories continue to fuel the growing tension between the US and the Cuban people over a government change in policy, Jonathon is thrust into the middle of an international crisis.
After another murder attempt of a ballplayer, the op takes a sudden shift from the Little Havana area of Miami to the Everglades. While Stone and Sanchez struggle to find out who is at the bottom of this, their focus abruptly changes to a freelance reporter and a mystery man.
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Operation Sundowner - A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story
A protection detail explodes in Stone’s face.
A bomb explodes at a country club in Southern California and Jonathon Stone is right in the middle of things. Jonathon and fellow CIA agent Chuck Chun are assigned to protect Russ Evans, their boss from San Francisco, at a retirement party and things go extremely wrong. Several guests are killed and Russ is hurt. As the two CIA agents try to find the perpetrators, they end up with an op filled with out-of-the-way places and superstition.
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Operation Camp Navajo - A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story
Explosives are missing and Stone is on the case.
Camp Navajo Weapon Station near Flagstaff, Arizona is robbed and Jonathon Stone and fellow agent Dale Oak are dispatched to the area to insure that CIA weapons stored at the site are intact. Upon arrival, he finds the FBI has taken charge and has quickly caught the thieves.
Case closed. After a drive through the area and listening to the details of the crime from the FBI, things just didn’t add up. A complete search of the facilities finds explosives are missing and Jonathon is tasked with finding them before they are used.
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Operation No Sanctuary - A Jonathon Stone Mystery Short Story
Mexican cartel violence erupts in the sanctuary city LA.
A gang war erupts in East LA between neighborhood gangs and the notorious MS-13 gang from San Salvador and a Mexican cartel from Tijuana is right in the middle of the conflict. CIA Agent Jonathon Stone is assigned the operation. He joins a crime task force to try to stop the violence and capture the cartel leaders. Along with FBI Agent Jodi Shannon, he pursues the elusive Raul Romero, the cartel kingpin who he has been after for a decade.
Drug trafficking, gang shootings, and politics all play a role as Jonathon battles the sanctuary city LA which seems to protect the innocent and the guilty.
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The Cajun Ghost - A Jonathon Stone Mystery
ARIZONA SENATOR AND U.S. SENATORIAL CANDIDATE, TAD CLOSEN SHOT DOWNTOWN PHOENIX DURING PARADE
CIA Agent Jonathon Stone’s purchase of an old rifle from a gun dealer leads him on a search for the owner of the gun. When he finds the owner, a Cajun gun for hire, he discovers that he was one of the shooters in downtown Phoenix the day Senator Ted Closen was assassinated. As the search accelerates, fellow agent Carol Haney joins Stone on a journey that goes from California to the French Quarter in New Orleans to Phoenix to the mountains in Northern Arizona.
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Game of Fire - A Jonathon Stone Mystery
An explosion and fire rocked a Southern California mall and it is quickly determined it is arson. The timing of the incident is special because it interrupts the Tet New Year’s Festival and Parade in Little Saigon, an area just east of Long Beach.
Enter veteran CIA Agent Jonathon Stone. Already in pursuit of the gun-running Minh family, he connects with a special FBI task force to assist in the investigation of the explosion and Minh quickly becomes their number one suspect.
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Black Mountain Secrets - A Jonathon Stone Mystery
CIA Agent Jonathon Stone goes undercover to help in an FBI investigation after a fellow agent is murdered on the Colorado River.
Stone continues the agent’s investigation of suspects who are stealing top-secret documents from a secret Army base in the middle of the Mohave Desert. The trail leads him from the rugged Black Mountains of Nevada to Laughlin, a gambling oasis on the Colorado.
As things heat up in this desert paradise, Stone dodges bullets and attempts on his life until he reaches the ultimate showdown. Jonathon Stone truly needs lady luck on his side to catch the spies and get through this ordeal alive.
Mystery Writer James Moushon brings to life Jonathon Stone, an undercover CIA agent assigned to the off the books CIA division – DOT.
He throws Stone right into the middle of action. As the mystery unfolds, Stone uses his wealth of knowledge and keen analytical mind to complete his dangerous assignments, while at the same time battling his love for gambling and drinking and the ladies.
Book Trailer: Black Mountain Secrets
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Joy, the Little Girl from Hope - A Summer At The North Pole
We join Santa and Ms. Claus relaxing on the porch after a hard day’s work. It is summertime at the ranch as everyone prepares for Christmas Eve. Many things have changed over the years but the goal of bringing joy to the world is still the same. Things are just more modern now.
One of the tasks Ms. Claus oversees is the many letters received from children. Just as things seem to be going smoothly, they receive a heartbreaking letter that changes the mode of the day. Santa must take care of this problem immediately.
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For a Complete List of James's Books, visit Amazon Author Profile and Book List.
The Author's Kindle Unlimited ebooks can be read for free by Subscribers.
Post Created by: James Moushon
Mystery Author, Industry blogger and Author Advocate
James is the author of the following blogs:
HBS Author’s Spotlight
Indie Author's Corner
HBS Virtual Bookshelf
Vella Words
Reader's News Flash
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