Author of the Week: Christian Belz
To end June and start July, Cozy Cat presents Christian Belz as Author of the week!
Christian is the author of mysteries The Accused Architect: A Ken Knoll Architectural Mystery and Civic Center Corpse: A Ken Knoll Architectural Mystery.
The Accused Architect is a mystery about architect Ken Knoll. Ken was what you'd call an average architect, but then his assistant finds a dead homeless man at the construction site. Even more horrifying than learning of the dead man, Ken learns that his assistant removed the body and put it in one of the firm's trucks. Ken is delayed when trying to remove the body, and when he is finally able to do so he learns the truck was taken by another employee and has landed itself in an auto shop, where Ken finds out the body has disappeared.
Check out this excerpt:
"My head spun in tight circles. A dead man on our site. My heart beat faster. How could this happen? And why would Edison move the body? Didn't he have any common sense? Doesn't every adult know that you don't move a dead body? Doesn't he watch TV? Don't leave the scene of an accident. Don't touch fallen electrical wires. And don't move a dead body.
His eyes continued their erratic motion. "Let me tell you what happened next."
"There's more?"
Civic Center Corpse is the second Ken Knoll mystery. In this mystery Ken has a new project: the Neumann Auditorium. However, things take a bad turn when the sign falls off the building killing businessman Jerome Neumann. So Ken's boss launches an investigation to make sure the firm is not at fault. To make matters worse, Ken's old college classmate Shirley Hansen is poking around trying to solve the murder that Neumann's wife insists has happened. Then a Hollywood actress appears at the site, and Ken despite the oddness of this appearance starts to see her romantically. As things get weirder and more intense, Ken's main suspect is murdered, and suddenly his own life is in danger.
Check out this excerpt:
"Robert, that assembly couldn't have failed. Those connections were were tested and certified. But what about Motor City Sign?" I said.
"Humpf. What?"
"Do we know where the failure occurred? Have you called the sign company? Maybe it's in the attachment of their sign to our framework, not in the framework we designed."
Christian has been an architect in Metro Detroit for 28 years, along with having experience in retail, educational, and industrial projects. He is Vice President of Detroit Working Writers, and he's won the Grand Prize in Aquarius Press's 2011 Bright Harvest Prize for his story Chambers.
His fiction and poetry has been published in numerous places including:
- Writers' Journal,
- The Story Teller Magazine
- Wicked East Press's Anthology: Short Sips, Coffee House Flash Fiction Collection 2
- WestWard Quarterly
- Yes, Poetry
Christian is also a co-author of the 28- Day Thought Diet, and he also writes a blog titled Real :) life, love and growth.
Find out more about Christian and his blog at ChristianBelz.org
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