Denver petroleum geologist, Cortlandt Scott, despite a successful and financially rewarding career, has tired of selling oil deals. Seeking new challenges while keeping in touch with the oil and gas community, he decides to try his hand as a private investigator. Hoping to capitalize on his inside knowledge, Cort opens his new venture, Crude Investigations, over the objections of his best friend, Denver homicide detective, Tom Montgomery. Off to a slow start, his first clients turn out to be old friends so he's comfortable in taking on their request to evaluate a questionable drilling...

Denver petroleum geologist turned PI, Cortlandt Scott, hasn't completely recovered from the murder of Gerri German, his long time girlfriend. His best friend, Denver Police Department homicide investigator, Tom Montgomery, has spent many long nights and weekends talking Scott through his grief aided by Cort's well stocked wine cellar. Now, as he attempts to rebuild his life as well as a new relationship with beautiful crime scene investigator, Lindsey Collins, an old friend asks him to look into some troubling aspects of the supposed accidental death of a United States Geological Survey...

When Rose Schirrack makes a bad decision, the consequences leave her unmarried, pregnant, and abandoned in Cincinnati at the turn of the 20th century. Her next decision--to accept a job as the madam of a brothel--starts her down a path destined to be paved with regrets. While learning the ropes of running an upscale bordello, Rose is thrown into a world of hard men, prostitutes, racism, and misogyny. Along the way, she makes another bad choice in men. Betrayed by her lover and a victim of her own avarice, Rose is cast adrift once more. Hoping to escape her past and start a new life, she tries...

Geologist turned private investigator, Cortlandt Scott, doesn't do body guarding. He likes to investigate oilfield crime and oil business scams. But when Mercedes Drexler, Denver's richest woman, calls to make him the proverbial -offer he can't refuse-, to become part of her company in return for protection, he is forced to listen. Cort hasn't worked in the business for years and the opportunity to learn about and actually participate in the latest technologies proves to be seductive. Those latest technologies are in the controversial practices of horizontal drilling and hydraulic...