Author, Harley Mazuk

Harley Mazuk was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned a B.A. in English Literature from Hiram College, and studied at Elphinstone College, Bombay, India. He worked in the music business in New York, then joined the Federal Government, for a 29-year run, first in Information Technology, later as a writer and editor in corporate communications.
Retired now, Mr. Mazuk likes to write pulp fiction, mainly private eye stories, several of which have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. His first story, “The Tall Blonde with the Hot Boiler,” resulted in his first sale, to EQMM (Jan. 2011). He has sold longer fiction (novelettes/novellas) to Dead Guns Press and Dark Passages. His first full length novel, White with Fish, Red with Murder, was released Feb. 28, 2017, by Driven Press.
Mr. Mazuk’s passions are his family, writing, reading, running, peace, Italian cars, and California wine. He lives with his wife, Anastasia, in Maryland, where they have raised two children.

"Bullets, Booze and Bastards"

Last Puffs

by Harley Mazuk,

$3.99 ebook, $14.95 paperback

During the Spanish Civil War Frank Swiver and his college pal, Max Rabinowitz, both fall in love with Amanda Zingaro, but she and her father are shot by a local fascist strongman. Eleven years later in San Francisco in 1949, Frank, traumatized by the violence in Spain, has become a pacifist and makes a marginal living as a private eye. He is called into a murder that the cops hope to write off as suicide. Max, who lost an eye in Spain but owes his life to Frank, becomes a public defender and calls Frank in to help him build a defense for a Mexican accused of knifing a naked man in a hotel room. More puzzling, Max has met a woman in the case who is a dead ringer for Amanda, the woman they thought they'd lost years ago in Spain. What’s going on?