Bruneau Books
An independent publishing house, bringing you the best in modern fiction.
The Dimase Augustin Thriller Series
Documenting the rise of homicide detective Dimase Augustin. From the City of Cambridge to the Executive Branch.
This story opens with the mysterious murder of a young woman in an apartment building in Cambridge, followed by the second murder of an early-morning, Black, female jogger on the Boston Common. Dimase is in charge of the Cambridge side of the investigation and eventually determines that the two deaths are connected, along with several other bizarre murders of young women. In a clever game of cat and mouse, Dimase finds that he is matching wits with an MIT professor who has gone off the rails as a serial killer. It is a race against time to unravel clues and save the remaining targets of Dr. Hans Berger as Dimase finally figures out the motive and makes a dramatic rescue while bringing the notorious Phantom Professor to justice.
Book One.
This is a split narrative where Dimase's longtime friend, Ben Johnson, a successful Black entrepreneur from Boston, now age seventy, has had a forty-year clandestine affair with Acadia LaFleur, the love of his life, and the matriarch of a powerful multi-generational political family in Louisiana. When Acadia is attacked in a home invasion and ends up in a coma, Ben Johnson's hands are tied, so he enlists Dimase Augustin to go to Louisiana to find out what happened, and why. As Dimase pulls at numerous threads, a second woman with the name Acadia LaFleur, a young elite escort on the run from something connected to Washington DC, turns up brutally murdered in her mother's rural Louisiana home. Eventually, the trail leads back to the nation's capital, where a corrupt cabal of career politicians and FBI agents are plotting the assassination of a Supreme Court justice in order to swing the balance of power on the court. Dimase discovers the link between the two Acadia LaFleurs, and in a thrilling conclusion, foils the attempted coup in a story that could be believable in today's headlines.
Book Two. Launching 10/2
“What makes these books unique, is that the story is a mechanism that allows the reader to think about contemporary issues... For example, is it okay to bend the truth for what you perceive to be the greater good, and if so -- who judges? Who decides what is the greater good? Who decides if your judgment is correct, and what about the unintended consequences?”
— Stephen L. Bruneau
Interview with Linda Thompson, The Author Show
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
“A perfectly plotted mystery that focuses on the fascinating world of biotechnology.”
- Foreward Reviews
“It's an interesting twist on the good-versus-evil moral universe of the average thriller—one that readers are sure to enjoy.”