Considered one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction, with more than 30 million books sold, writer Dean Wesley Smith published far more than a hundred novels in forty years, and hundreds of short stories across many genres.
At the moment he produces novels in several major series, including the time travel Thunder Mountain novels set in the Old West, the galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe series, the urban fantasy Ghost of a Chance series, a superhero series starring Poker Boy, a mystery series featuring the retired detectives of the Cold Poker Gang, and the Mary Jo Assassin series.
His monthly magazine, Smith's Monthly, which consists of only his own fiction, premiered in October 2013 and offers readers more than 70,000 words per issue, including a new and original novel every month.
During his career, Dean also wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds. Writing with his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch under the name Kathryn Wesley, he wrote the novel for the NBC miniseries The Tenth Kingdom and other books for Hallmark Hall of Fame movies.
He wrote novels under dozens of pen names in the worlds of comic books and movies, including novelizations of almost a dozen films, from The Final Fantasy to Steel to Rundown.
Dean also worked as a fiction editor off and on, starting at Pulphouse Publishing, then at VB Tech Journal, then Pocket Books, and now at WMG Publishing, where he and Kristine Kathryn Rusch serve as series editors for the acclaimed Fiction River anthology series.
For more information about Dean's books and ongoing projects, please visit his website at www.deanwesleysmith.com.
More than two hundred couples get married in Las Vegas every day. And some people just go missing right before their planned wedding.
Some show up later. Some are never found.
The Cold Poker Gang decides to look into an old cold case of a woman who went missing right before her wedding. What they dig up shocks the entire city to the core. And exposes the dirty side of an industry beyond the roses and cake and white dresses.
Another twisted mystery from USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith.
Dean Wesley Smith's Cold Poker Gang novels specialize in secrets and lies. The books begin with some kind of mysterious crime in the past, a crime that doesn't get solved (often because it has a secret wrapped in its core) and then the Cold Poker Gang, who specialize in solving cold cases, get involved. You know the lies will be exposed and the secrets revealed. Dead Hand is a great introduction to the series, if you've never read any of these books before. – Kristine Kathryn Rusch
"…Dean Wesley Smith draws a royal straight flush by making the hand he deals readers seem possible with this exhilarating political poker thriller…"
– Midwest Book Review on Dead MoneyPROLOGUE
May 17th, 2010
Las Vegas, Nevada
TRUDY PATTERSON RAN her hand along the lace edge of her white wedding dress as it hung in her suite's bedroom. The dress was so beautiful, with a full skirt and short train, and it fit her perfectly, almost magically, especially over her shoulders.
She had hung it out in the open just to be able to stare at it the last few days and enjoy the wonderful future it promised. Amazing how a simple dress could mean so much.
Outside Trudy's top floor suite, the sun was shining and the day was promising to be warm. She had some errands to run, then she would pick up Tommy, the love of her life, at the airport and they would have dinner. So when she got back from the errands, she needed to put the dress away so he wouldn't see it. That would be bad luck.
She didn't really believe in that sort of thing, but when it came to getting married, she was going to take no chances.
But for the moment, she liked having the wonderful dress and all it offered for a future out in the open.
The dress had been her grandmother's on her father's side. Her grandmother would have been proud to see Trudy wearing it, but her grandmother had died a year before Trudy met Tommy in their last years of college.
Tommy's parents and family and friends would arrive tomorrow from Los Angeles and Trudy's parents and sister would fly in the following day.
In three days, Trudy would walk down the aisle in that dress in a beautiful chapel in the rocks just outside of town and marry Tommy. They had been living together now in Denver for three years and both of them had always wanted to get married in Las Vegas. Now, it was finally going to happen, just as they had both dreamed and planned.
She had been here for almost a week, arranging all the details for the rehearsal dinner, the wedding, the justice of the peace, the flowers, everything. Her mother had offered to get time off work and come and help her, but Trudy had wanted to do it alone. She felt that would make it even more special.
Her hand brushed the dress again, then she checked herself in the bathroom mirror to make sure her long brown hair was still tied back and her shorts weren't riding up on her and her light blue blouse was buttoned correctly.
All fine. Just three last quick errands, not more than a few hours, and she would come back, shower, and change to meet Tommy.
She took her rental car keys, her small brown purse, and a bottle of water and headed out of the suite's door.
The hotel's security cameras followed her to the valet parking, where she got in her blue 2010 Ford Taurus rental car, buckled her seat belt, and pulled into traffic without a problem.
She was never seen alive again.
Five days after she was scheduled to be married and her frantic family and fiancé shouted at everyone they could shout at to get help, Trudy Patterson's body was found in a white wedding dress, holding a bouquet of red, wilted flowers, sitting in her rental car, parked at the top of a slight ridge looking out over Las Vegas.
Because she had been sitting in the hot car with the windows up for three days before being found, cause of death was never determined.
And with her fiancé and family all having complete alibis, there were no suspects.
None.
Within months, her case went cold and her grandmother's wedding dress, the one that had hung in the suite, not the one she wore in death, was put back in a box for storage.
