Nathan Walpow Books In Order

Publication Order of Joe Portugal Mystery Books

Publication Order of Logan Books

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Nathan Walpow
Author Nathan Walpow is a five time champion on Jeopardy! and was born in the year 1948. He was born and raised in New York City, and attended college in the East Village in the late sixties. The most valuable thing he learned the whole time was how to sneak downstairs at Fillmore East. After spending four in upstate New York and another six in Oklahoma City, he made it to Los Angeles in the year 1979.

During the eighties, he spent acting, appearing in an endless succession of improv comedy troupes, many plays, and got two semi-prestigious Drama-Logue awards. Nathan appeared in an installment of “Sledge Hammer!” and he even had the distinct honor of being cut out of an episode of “Moonlighting”.

His fifteen minutes happened in the year 1985, when he won five times in a row on Jeopardy!, the money from which he quickly squandered. On The Challengers, he won seven games in the year 1991, and wound up shaking Dick Clark’s hand fourteen times.

During the final week of the eighties, he met a woman named Andrea Cohen. Exactly four years later, they got married. Andrea is both Nathan’s inspiration and is a high school history teacher.

In the year 1992, Nathan took a short class at UCLA Extension pretty much on a whim. He started producing stories, many of which were fantasy or science fiction and was able to sell some of them. After he read the complete works of Raymond Chandler, he decided to make a switch to crime. A fortuitous meeting with an agent at a writer’s conference, and he had his book deal. When he was fifty years old, he sold his first novel, just like Chandler.

Nathan is a former president of the Southern California MWA chapter and is a member of the International Thriller Writers and the Mystery Writers of America.

He writes the “Joe Portugal” series, and has penned some novellas. His work is from the mystery genre.

“The Cactus Club Killings” is the first novel in the “Joe Portugal” series and was released in the year 1999. In a city of movie stars and fast cars, these people are nuts about cacti. That is, until a murderer joins the club.

Joe Portugal likes people. However, he likes plants a lot more. This is why the ex-theater actor turned small-time L.A. Commercial star is a rather prominent member of the Culver City Cactus Club. So is a killer, unfortunately.

The club’s president gets killed, with a poison succulent lodged into her mouth. A dad that knows a bit about murder, and cops breathing down his neck, Joe is able to recognize a jam when he sees one. He starts to look through a colorful cast of plant dealers, plant lovers, and even some international plant smugglers, he is unable to find the answers that he needs. The whole time, the murderer has killed again, working his way through the entire Cactus Club with a garden variety motive, as well as a very green thumb for killing.

Readers found that both the characters and the tale to be fun and refreshing. Fans found themselves wanting to read more stories by this author.

“Death of an Orchid Lover” is the second novel in the “Joe Portugal” series and was released in the year 2000. Nurture. Nature. Murder.

Joe Portugal, L.A. actor, only wants to give a boost to his love life, keep the mealybugs off of his cacti, and possibly make some commercials along the way. With a bit part nailed down, Joe has every reason in the world just to mind his own business. Except he doesn’t. This is due to a man that loved orchids has just been found dead, as has a woman that just asked Joe for some help.

Joe, never one to step away from a challenge, plunges right into a world that is unlike any other he has seen before. The highly competitive and frenetic world of the orchid enthusiast. Suddenly Joe (cactus lover and actor and reluctant sleuth) is finding that solving murder cases among all the fauna, flora, and fanatics who thrive in Los Angeles is no hobby. It is his real calling, especially since there is a real killer that has come calling for him.

Fans found that this one was even better than the first, as the characters have had the chance to develop further and like Joe and all of his relationships. Joe is a quirky and engaging hero. Readers enjoy all of the information on plants.

“One Last Hit” is the third novel in the “Joe Portugal” series and was released in the year 2003. It has been thirty years since Joe put away his electric guitar. Maybe this is one reason he is suffering a bad case of the mid-life doldrums. Then he gets a chance to put the band from his teenage years back together. Possibly his life, too.

All he’d have to do is locate the lead guitar player, who has not been since the seventies. He begins looking, and it is obvious that there is somebody who does not want this reunion to happen. Somebody that is very handy with a gun.

“The Manipulated” is the fourth novel in the “Joe Portugal” series and was released in the year 2005. Joe Portugal has experienced killing in the past. He has witnessed gunmen mow down a buddy on slightly more than a whim. He has known ambition and greed to push his buddies to kill. Now he has to confront a whole new degree of wickedness. A show business prodigy has been shot and killed. Nobody, except maybe the guy’s father, is going to mourn him, his death is going to put Joe in debt to some shadowy presence whose sway moves deep into Southern California government, industry, and law enforcement.

Quickly, Joe starts to suspect that everybody he knows: from Gina (his new wife), Ronnie Bell (his protege and the stunning television star), and his dad (a prison vet) are all a part of a clandestine coterie called “The Manipulated”.