Tap the gear icon above to manage new release emails.
Follow Karl Bort to get new release emails from Audible and Amazon.
Karl Bort retired from the Cleveland Police Department in 1994 after 27 years of service, then obtained his Licensed Practical Nursing License. He continued working another 15 years in nursing with the last five years as a night-shift Psych Nurse at the Cleveland Clinic. He is the Past President of The Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association. Thekla Madsen is a corporate business analyst, technical and marketing writer based in western Wisconsin.
The pair has started on their next novel. “It has cops, nurses, lawyers, and killers entwined in a compelling story of intrigue,” Bort says. “It will be up to the reader to determine who the ‘good guys’ are.”
Bad JuJu in Cleveland is available in paperback and ebook versions on Amazon.com, Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords.com. Links are available at www.bortmadsen.com.
Cop stories are full of colorful characters and impossibly true stories-by nature of the job and situations encountered, cops know that ‘truth is stranger than fiction”. Add psychiatric elements and the story is elevated to another level.
As a Cleveland Police detective, I worked 11 years in Narcotics and was elected to serve as President of the Cleveland Police Patrolmens’ Association. After retiring I went to nursing school and worked as a psych nurse at the Cleveland Clinic for a number of years. Now, I am fully retired and writing about my experiences, together with my co-author, Thekla Madsen. We are currently working on a crime fiction novel tentatively titled “Angry Nurse in Cleveland” which incorporates both police and psych nursing elements.
We are looking for an agent/publisher to work with us to further our story telling.
In 2014, we published “Bad JuJu in Cleveland” which is available on Amazon.com. Bad JuJu is a crime fiction “police procedural” novel based on a real case I investigated while working narcotics. “Four men are brutally slain in an abandoned house on Cleveland’s east side, one with ties to city hall and all marked with a mysterious symbol. When Detective Nicholas Silvano is called to the case, he finds this drug deal gone-wrong is anything but ordinary and the search for an elusive killer is on. With FBI Agent James Reis creating roadblocks at every turn, Silvano teams up with DEA Agent Charley Goetz on a manhunt that takes them from Cleveland to the shady side of Florida, where anything can be had for a price. The stakes become higher when the killer makes it personal, forcing Nick to face feelings he’d been denying for so long.”
I have been published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer for an essay on “Cops and Donuts” and interviewed on Cleveland.com. Thekla was executive editor of a magazine for women in Minnesota/Wisconsin and has had articles published in numerous trade magazines.
Any work we submit to you will be fully completed and edited. Will you consider working with us?
I can be reached at 440-263-2481 or e-mail nurscop@gmail.com
Thank you for your consideration
PRESS RELEASE – Retired Cleveland Cop Writes Murder Mystery
After reading how bestselling author James Patterson began his writing career while working the night shift at a Boston psychiatric facility, Karl Bort, a retired Cleveland police officer and psych nurse at the Cleveland Clinic, figured “why not give it a try”.
Bad JuJu in Cleveland is a police thriller involving drugs….murder….and voodoo! Bort uses familiar Cleveland locations as a backdrop and readers will recognize Slyman’s Diner, the Rock Hall of Fame, and Cleveland’s gritty east side where it all begins when four men are found brutally slain in an abandoned house, one with ties to City Hall and all marked with a mysterious symbol.
When Detective Nicholas Silvano is called to the case, he finds this drug-deal-gone-wrong is anything but ordinary and the search for an elusive killer is on. With FBI Agent James Reis creating roadblocks at every turn, Silvano teams up with DEA Agent Charley Goetz on a manhunt that takes them from Cleveland to Florida.
The story is a combination of fact and fiction from the author’s time as a Cleveland cop. "I did take liberties with the timeline and main plot to bring it up to date, but my partners in the Narcotics Unit and the cops in the 4th District will recognize the story,” Bort says.
Bort and co-author Thekla Madsen spent over a year working together on the manuscript. “She added a female ‘Sam Spade' perspective,” Bort says. “Chris Cheetham designed the ‘killer cover’, and my nephew Donald Bort designed the web page.” Rob Bignell of Inventing Reality Editing Service formatted the book for publishing.
Dave Wood, past vice president of the National Book Critic Circle and syndicated author of Dave Wood’s Book Report, gave it advance praise, noting, “There very well may be BAD JuJu in Cleveland, but Bort and Madsen have conspired to write a very, very GOOD novel, which will please hardcore police procedural fans and general readers alike."
Read more
Read less
