Ken Kuhlken Books in Order

In the Lake Tahoe area during the early 1970s, seventeen-year-old Jodi McGee turns away from drugs and boys toward Christianity. Falling in love with her English teacher brings conflicts and tragedies that test her new faith.

During World War II, Tom Hickey serves as a military policeman along the San Diego and Tijuana border. A draftee preparing to leave for overseas asks him to rescue his sister from German and Mexican Nazis.

Private detective Tom Hickey enjoys the success of a San Diego nightclub he partly owns, until its celebrated singer disappears. His search leads into a cult organized by her mother and an East Indian guru.

Tom Hickey leaves his pregnant wife at Lake Tahoe to help a former nightclub singer facing an arson charge in San Diego. Investigating her allegations against mobsters endangers his family when his wife disappears.

Arriving in California’s redwood country for a 1972 folk festival, Clifford Hickey is caught in a police raid on his brother’s camp. When Alvaro becomes a murder suspect, Clifford confronts hostile bikers, locals, and law officers.

Before Mexico’s 1979 elections, reports of a politically outspoken Virgin circulate in Baja California. Private investigator Alvaro Hickey helps Lourdes Shuler search for her sister, whom she identifies as the apparition, while powerful enemies pursue them.

Ken Kuhlken reflects on writing through observations of contemporary life, historical writers, and his own successes and failures. The book gathers guidance and personal experience into a handbook concerned with the broader life of a writer.

In 1926, musician Tom Hickey discovers that an old friend’s lynching has vanished from official Los Angeles accounts. Investigating the cover-up draws him toward an influential evangelist, newspaper proprietors, and powerful interests in the city’s future.

During a difficult period, Ken Kuhlken finds comfort in Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence of God. This personal account follows his effort to understand the Christian classic and deepen the peace it offers.

A manuscript offers detective Tom Hickey a new lead into his father’s disappearance in 1936. Pursuing it despite opposition from his mentor sends him toward novelist B. Traven, the Sundance Kid’s reputed survival, and powerful adversaries.

These California stories explore the state as a place of aspiration, illusion, and unease. Selected from Ken Kuhlken’s fiction, they present contrasting experiences of a landscape that can promise escape while also becoming unsettling, bewildering, or frightening to inhabit.

This collection combines Midheaven, The Very Least, and The Answer to Everything. It traces Jodi McGee and Clifford Hickey’s intertwined lives through religious questions, a journalist’s investigation across the Mexican border, and threats from a drug cartel.

Wanted for manslaughter, James returns to a California beach town to protect his sister Olivia from her estranged husband, a gambler with mob connections. His old friend joins him in considering a violent solution to her predicament.

Jodi McGee, whose husband is imprisoned, cares deeply for journalist Clifford Hickey. When Clifford’s brother becomes involved in killing a Tijuana cartel gunman, revenge threatens the Hickey family along with Jodi and her teenage daughter.

Journalist Clifford Hickey investigates when his cousin’s friend flees across the Mexican border after being accused of abusing children at a church nursery. His inquiries anger influential criminals and officials while bringing Jodi McGee into his life.

Otis Otterbach’s early life follows baseball from a road trip to the Little League World Series through the major-league draft. With his friend and catcher Casey, he undertakes a mysterious mission directed by Casey’s dangerous mother.

After losing his home and closest friend, Otis Otterbach questions his marriage, future work, and whether to kill Henry Tucker. Graduate study in Iowa offers little refuge as panic attacks and unsettling encounters drive him onward.

Otis Otterbach seeks a life beyond baseball after his closest friend disappears, possibly following a murder. His story unfolds against the upheavals of the 1960s, including Vietnam, Berkeley protests, folk music, and the Manson family.

Otis Otterbach’s uneasy peace in an island prison ends when a woman he loves is assaulted. Escaping Mexico brings renewed confrontations with Henry Tucker and Cynthia Jones, while baseball and a dangerous threat to Nancy complicate his future.

Convinced an enemy destroyed his home and killed his closest friend, Otis Otterbach trains for a potentially fatal mission of revenge. His pursuit crosses wilderness and jungle before taking him to Mexico City and the man he seeks.