Bo Thunboe Books In Order

Publication Order of Jack Houser Mystery Books

Bo Thunboe

Bo Thunboe is an American author of science fiction, mystery and thriller novels known for his Jake Houser Mystery Series.

He was born and raised in Chicago’s western suburbs. After bad eyesight shattered his dreams of becoming a pilot for the Marines, he joined college. But life wasn’t easy on him, and a few years down the line, he was out in the real world repossessing cars and laying bricks. Then he met the love of his life, Diane who set his life straight again, went back to school and earned an ID BA in Economics from Northern Illinois University. After spending a couple of decades as a laywer, Bo Thunboe quit his job to concentrate on his full-time writing career.

What Can’t Be True
What Can’t Be True is the first book by Bo Thunboe and the first in Jake Houser Mystery series. While the beginning of this novel is steadily paced, it lays the foundation for the events that follow later. The story starts with a group of Boy Scouts conducting an organized clean-up. They discover a car in the receding water with a skull inside. Investigator Jake Houser is assigned to this case, and it’s from this point everything becomes convoluted.

Jake’s wife was murdered just over a year ago, and he’s still getting used to living without a wife. Now every murder case that comes his way is very personal to him, and he needs to seek justice for all those murdered. He works on every homicide until it gets solved regardless of who or what may try to derail him from the investigation. The car discovered on the receding waters was last seen on the road half a decade ago, and all the victim has been reported missing as well.

At first, the cops presumed that only one body was in the car, but more surprises are sent their way as more bodies are discovered. Someone wants the evidence destroyed for justice to be avoided. The medical examiner, who never shows up to the crime scene, but shows up in this one has orders from his superior; to find a piece of evidence first and keep it a secret.

Jakes discovers the relationship between the killed man to his uncle, Bull Warren and the cover-up of this murder case being led by his cousin Sheriff Bev. She wants the murder case to be investigated by her team and goes ahead to claim that they always cover crime committed in that park area, where the car was discovered. But her team has a much smaller force and are not used to investigating the major crime, but politically it is all about the stats and the crime numbers.

Sheriff Bev’s deputy, Hogan is instructed to stalk Houser and find out the evidence he possesses and also commanded to delay him in any means possible until the case is transferred to Bev. Jake has to investigate and find out how deeply his family members are connected to this case and choose whether his loyalty lies with his family or with seeking justice for the murder victims.

Whichever decision Jake chooses, it’ll cost him probably more than he can fathom. And once he gets on his investigation, the pace picks up and the readers get involved with the main characters and their actions as well. What Cant Be True is a fascinating series debut, an enjoyable crime mystery case that leaves you wanting to know the identity of the person behind the death and what was so important such that it needs to be kept from Jakes and Sheriff’s discovery. The descriptions are so vivid such that you get transported to the scenes with the characters and you get a “first hand” feeling of the crime scenes.

However Many More

The second book in Jake Houser Mystery series centers around Jake and a murder case that comes his way. His longtime friend Henry Fox, a straight forward man and a well-known folk in town is murdered.

He worked as a handyman and also wrote a book that described in detailed what he had found in holes that he digs around the old rubbish pile. Additionally, the man also had started acquiring contents of storage units hoping that he would find some valuable items.

As Jake begins his investigations, he discovers Henry’s work calendar and finds out that before his death, his handyman jobs had declined significantly. So he has to figure out what the man had been up to before he was killed. People who might have known what he was doing are keeping everything a secret.
Henry’s ex-wife is the main suspect in this case as she desperate for cash and still getting alimony from Henry which she needs to cater to her bills. It’s also discovered that the dead man had a partner in the storage units and that he had found some silver bars and the storage partner believes that Henry had tried to hide the bars from him. At first, Jake presumes that Henry had a handful of these silver bars, but upon further investigations, he discovers the existence of more large quantities of these bars. It also seems that more people might have wanted Henry dead than alive.

Jake has soon kicked off the investigation when it’s discovered that he had close links to the murder victim. But still, he investigates on his own because it was his good friend who was murdered. He sticks with the silver bar mystery and follows it to the conclusion. His investigations see him brush edges with the legal system as he strives to unravel the identity of the killer.

However Many More is a brilliant police mystery. While there’s an initial part of the story that seems to disconnect from the rest of this story, it later connects to the main story. It’s a good tale explaining the fact that you can never know someone fully regardless whether they’re a family member or your best friend. It’s full of twists and turns and can be read as a standalone.