SHELL GAMES The discovery of thousands of empty abalone shells and two murdered divers sends Lieutenant John Marquez's poaching investigation in a new—and very risky—direction. Former DEA agent and now head of a special operations unit of the California Department of Fish and Game, Marquez learns he himself has been targeted as the next victim. Stalking him is Kline, a vicious drug smuggler turned abalone smuggler who has a vendetta against Marquez. John Marquez is supposed to protect wildlife, not solve murders, but the only way he can break the multi-million-dollar abalone-smuggling ring, as well as save his own life, is to find and stop Kline. A fast-paced crime novel set along the majestic Northern California coastline, Shell Games introduces a tough, complex, and appealing hero and a masterful new series. Read an excerpt. See photos used as reference for Shell Games. BUY THE BOOK from an independent bookstore, Chronicle Books, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble. SHELL GAMES Chronicle Books, September, 2003 Hardcover 347 pages ISBN: 0-8118-4186-3 PRAISE FOR SHELL GAMES You know as you read this one that you are on to something good. Kirk Russell comes out of the gate with a story brimming with fresh characters and artful prose. Shell Games announces the start of what I think will be a great series and career.    —MICHAEL CONNELLY The story is loaded with atmosphere, as the SOU team races through clogged California traffic up and down the moody coast from Fort Bragg to San Francisco. It's also made unself-consciously relevant with timely references, such as contrasting the mortally wounded California state budget and the whatever-it-takes blank check given federal agencies in the name of post-9/11 national security. The SOU crew includes a variety of believablecharacters, not a one from central casting. The bad guys are as colorful as Elmore Leonard's cast of wise guys, but with ex-hippie and surfer dudes subbing for Leonard's thugs and made men. Russell could, and should, take Marquez and this crew out again.    —KIRKUS REVIEWS Compelling characters, unrelenting suspense, and vivid settings all add up to a great read. Kirk Russell's Shell Games is so well-crafted, it's hard to believe it's a first novel.    —JAN BURKE Excellent . . . a compelling plot, fully realized characters, white-knuckle suspense, and unusual yet accessible settings. What truly sets it apart, though, is Kirk Russell's vigorous, lovely, unadorned prose. Shell Games marks the debut of a substantial new talent in crime fiction.    —JOHN LESCROART In recent years, mystery writers seem to have entered a secret contest to see who could come up with the best variant on the traditional detective heroes: cops or ex-cops (usually wounded or traumatized) turned private eyes. Russell should walk off with the award for far and away the most inventive new detective hero....    —BOOKLIST ...a wonderfully unpredictable plot that holds the reader hostage to the very last page.    —RIDLEY PEARSON In an era of global terrorism, saving California's endangered abalone might not seem like the highest of priorities, and Lt. John Marquez—head of a special operations unit of the state's Department of Fish and Game—knows it.   A large part of the considerable strength of Kirk Russell's first mystery novel (along with his clear and pungent writing, especially about the primal weirdness of life along the Mendocino coast) comes from the way he makes us quickly believe in Marquez and his cause—mostly by letting us watch as the Fish and Gamers get frustrated, pushed around and generally shut out by the FBI and local police agencies. One of Marquez's bosses points out that the country's "post 9/11 gear-up" is a lot like the way the FBI responded to the Cold War communist threat of the 1950's: "They spend a lot of money and threw a lot of agents at the problem and our enemies just adapted."    —DICK ADLER, CHICAGO TRIBUNE