Autocide

(Paperback)

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Description

Autocide is an alternative timeline murder mystery with a heavy dash of humor and absurdity where the automobile industry is different from how we know it today. Our detective is a curmudgeon who likes to make dated jokes and annoy people to get what he wants out of them. Ben has a past that was brutal and sad. He also dislikes corporations that survived due to bad business practices, deceit and sabotage. This is during a more libertarian time where the practice of prosecuting business for anything has mostly been banned via several Patriot Acts.
Ben does mostly domestic violence cases, and those murders that are domestic-related, but he is given the assignment of investigating a murder at the local carmaker that is the second biggest carmaker in the world. A company he has a personal reason for disliking due to how his father almost destroyed the family.
Our murderer is very odd and leads Ben on a chase where the murderer seems to want to get caught.
Autocide is filled with puns and character development during chapters labeled as interludes. These interludes add to the humor, as well as ironic situations like how the father of the police chief died. Brief interruptions in the narrative provide more humor. We come to understand the motives and the lives of all those who surround Ben and what happened to change society, like a presidential assassination.
Breaking through dramatic walls happens from time to time, where the characters seem to be aware someone is writing their story and trying to get the writer to change certain things. Occasionally the writer does.
A fun, and funny, read. And like the author did while researching this book, the reader may learn some automotive facts, models almost built. After the book is over the author reveals more about how decisions were made that resulted in a different car industry and what made such changes possible.

Author Bio

Ken Carman is a retired entertainer and educational service provider who has been writing a political/social column called Inspection since 1972. He also writes columns about beer as a beer judge and homebrewer.
Ken is a 1972 graduate of Town of Webb Schools, and a 1976 graduate of the SUNY college system in New York State. He worked in the music industry in Nashville before his 30 year tour life entertaining children and adults. Ken is married to Millie Jenny Carman originally from New Hartford, NY. They live in Nashville, TN, Beaver River and Eagle Bay, NY.
Ken has been writing since Kindergarten when Mrs. Failing asked the class to write a book, including pictures of their family and their lives. Instead Ken wrote a short book which has long since gone out of print. Probably because it never was in print. His first book was an E-book, oddly with the same name and mostly the same content.
Yes, his first teacher was named Failing. Do you find that funny Ken does.
The cover of Autocide was the grand creation of Aloura Smith, airbrush artist extraordinaire, from the Nashville area. And that IS a skeleton smoking a cigar.