Author

David Freed

David Freed
  • A high-flying, high-octane thrill ride, Deep Fury is the long awaited seventh installment of the bestselling Cordell Logan Mysteries from author David Freed.

    A naked man drops from the night sky and crashes through the roof of a mobile home, nearly killing the elderly couple inside. The victim is soon identified as Pete Hostetler, a well-respected executive at a California-based toy manufacturing company. But detectives are baffled, and there are no leads. Did he accidentally fall out of an airplane or was he pushed?

    For Cordell Logan—a sardonic, financially struggling flight instructor and former government assassin—Hostetler’s death is personal. The two men were classmates at the US Air Force Academy and later served together as fighter pilots during Operation Desert Storm, where Hostetler saved Logan’s life during one particularly perilous combat mission in Iraq. Logan is convinced Pete was murdered. But who would’ve killed someone in such bizarre fashion, and why?

    Determined to avenge his battle buddy’s death, Logan starts digging and discovers nothing is as it seems, and that he may not have known Hostetler as well as he thought. Soon a vexing trail of clues lead him and his aging Cessna, the Ruptured Duck, across California, deep into Mexico, and relentlessly into harm’s way.

  • Flat Spin is the first installment in David Freed’s acclaimed series featuring Cordell Logan, a sardonic pilot with dwindling savings and a shadowy past.

    Based in California’s sunny Rancho Bonita, Cordell Logan is a flight instructor and aspiring Buddhist with a shadowy past whose attempt at a quiet(er) life is shattered when his ex-wife Savannah arrives unannounced on his doorstep. Her new husband, Arlo Echevarria—the man she left Logan for—has been murdered in Los Angeles.

    Logan and Echevarria were once comrades-in-arms, members of a top-secret military assassination squad known as Alpha. Savannah begs Logan to tell the LAPD what he knows of Echevarria’s covert past to help detectives solve the slaying, but sharing that sort of information raises both ethical and practical concerns. After an attempt on Logan’s own life, it becomes clear that this goes deeper than he feared, and that solving the murder himself may be the only way to ensure his—and Savannah’s—safety.

  • From award-winning author David Freed, Fangs Out is the second installment in the pulse-pounding Cordell Logan series.

    Moments before he is executed, the man who killed Hub Walker’s daughter makes a troubling allegation: that the real murderer was Walker’s close friend, an important US defense contractor. Walker—famed Vietnam War veteran and hero-pilot—is looking to hire someone willing to hunt down information that will refute the claim and help restore his friend’s good name. Enter Cordell Logan: civilian flight instructor, would-be Buddhist, and retired military assassin.

    Logan takes the job, thinking it will be a bit of a breeze, and an opportunity to rub shoulders with a living legend. But after flying to San Diego in his beloved Cessna—the Ruptured Duck—he is swiftly pulled into a perplexing and dangerous puzzle. The deeper he digs, the murkier the waters become, and the more dangerous it gets. Who really killed Walker’s daughter, and why? Somebody doesn’t want Logan asking questions—and will stop at nothing to silence him.

  • Award-winning author David Freed brings readers another fast-paced, adrenaline-fueled mystery in Voodoo Ridge, the third in the Cordell Logan series.

    In 1956, a twin-engine airplane bearing mysterious cargo takes off from a small airport outside Los Angeles and flies straight into a raging storm, never to be seen again. Sixty-some years later, retired military assassin and would-be Buddhist Cordell Logan spots wreckage as he and his ex-wife, Savannah, are flying over California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. The long-missing plane has finally been found.

    The couple’s trip to Lake Tahoe where they hope to reconcile their marriage is thrown off when Logan is asked to guide a search and rescue team to the remote crash site. He agrees, but what they discover there is not what they expected. Alongside the crashed plane and its mummified pilot is a fresh corpse: the body of a young man shot mere hours earlier. Someone has beaten them to the downed airplane—and its cargo—and will stop at nothing to profit from what they found, including kidnapping Savannah to ensure Logan’s cooperation. Filled with unexpected twists, full-throttle action, and wry humor, Voodoo Ridge is a thrilling mystery that sees Cordell Logan drawn into the most perplexing and deadly situation he’s ever faced. 

  • The fourth installment in the critically acclaimed Cordell Logan series, The Three-Nine Line brings the sardonic pilot all the way to Vietnam.

    It’s been over forty years since they were released from the “Hanoi Hilton"—a prisoner of war camp in Vietnam—and three American soldiers and ex-prisoners finally return to Vietnam. As part of an effort by the US government to settle a major trade agreement, these three men have agreed to make peace with one of their most brutal former captors—a guard they dubbed “Mr. Wonderful.” But when Mr. Wonderful is murdered, the three former POWs are the primary suspects and the multibillion-dollar deal threatens to unravel.

    Enter Cordell Logan: pilot, still-aspiring Buddhist, and former military assassin.

    Working with a newly formed covert intelligence unit, Logan arrives in Hanoi to identify the real killer before the trade agreement implodes. But he soon discovers a vexing and increasingly dangerous mystery that will take every ounce of ingenuity and resolve to unlock. Risking his life like never before, Logan must discover who killed the guard and why, and fast.

    The Three-Nine Line is a classic, pulse-pounding page-turner and an excellent addition to a thrilling series from award-winning author David Freed.

  • The next fast-paced installment in the Cordell Logan series, Hot Start is an adrenaline-fueled, action-packed thrill ride.

    One sweltering summer night, an international big-game hunter and his beautiful wife are shot dead—at long range—while swimming naked at their seaside estate in Rancho Bonita, California. The police are convinced the perpetrator is an outspoken animal-rights activist—who happens to have both military training and a criminal record. The evidence seems overwhelming. But then rumors begin to surface that there may be more than one person with the means and motive for murder.

    The last thing Cordell Logan wants is to get involved in another police investigation. But he and the suspect have mutual friends, and Logan realizes he alone may be the only one able to discover what really happened. At first reluctant, he soon finds himself neck-deep in a confounding conspiracy involving a congressman with close ties to the White House and a ruthless Czech crime boss who will stop at nothing to protect his illicit operations. Finding the truth will take Logan to places he never expected—and expose him to dangers he may not survive.

  • Overflowing with action and humor, The Kill Circle is the next must-read page-turning thriller in the critically acclaimed Cordell Logan mystery series.

    When one retired CIA analyst plunges off a cliff in his vintage Porsche, it’s an unfortunate accident. When a second and then a third turn up dead under unusual circumstances, the CIA’s suspicions are confirmed: these men were murdered. All three analysts were once assigned to the same top-secret project: an internal review of the CIA’s own involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. With a Congressional mandate set to go into effect that will require the CIA to release long-secret files, it seems someone will stop at nothing to prevent the public from discovering what really happened that tragic day in Dallas, 1963.

    Cordell Logan—veteran pilot, aspiring Buddhist, and former government assassin—has no interest in getting involved in what is swiftly becoming a disturbing conspiracy, even to help out a former colleague. That is, until he meets Layne Sterling, the brilliant CIA agent assigned to the case. Logan and Layne are instantly drawn to one another, but manage to put the case first as they find themselves caught up in a high stakes, high altitude game of cat-and-mouse—one that could destroy them both.