
Welcome to the website of Michael Prelee, award-winning author of the mystery novels Murder in the Heart of It All and Lost Little Sister from North Star Press as well as the Milky Way Repo sci-fi crime series from EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy. All available in print and ebook.
Lost Little Sister

Kelly Dolan has been Missing for Nine Years
The college graduate was preparing to start her life with a new job in a new city when she vanished over Labor Day Weekend. For almost a decade, her sister Quinn has been searching for her. After an armed robbery at a lakeside store turns to murder, she becomes convinced a serial killer is targeting the small town of Hogan but can’t convince the police. Can reporter Tim Abernathy discover the secrets in Kelly’s life that led to her disappearance before more victims meet a similar fate?
Amazon * Barnes and Noble * Books a Million * North Star Press
Lost Little Sister won the Midwest Book Award for Mystery / Thriller!

Murder in a Small Town discussion with the Friends of the Edgewater Library in Chicago.
Lost Little Sister was selected for the 2021 Ohioana Book Festival.

Ohioana Book Festival Danger & Intrigue Panel
Murder in the Heart of It All

Someone is angry in Hogan, Ohio.
Residents of the small town are plagued by vicious, anonymous letters. The personalized notes land in mailboxes with devastating effect, revealing secrets and deeds better kept unknown. Whoever the sender is, they know the town and the people who live there.
Reporter Tim Abernathy is assigned to the story and tasked with finding out who is sending the letters and why. The letter writer doesn’t want to be found, however, and will kill to keep his secret.
A cat-and-mouse game ensues between reporter and letter writer as the violence escalates, shocking the residents of Hogan. Can Tim discover who is terrorizing the town before becoming the next victim?
Amazon * Books a Million * Barnes & Noble * North Star Press
Invisible Ships Podcast featuring Murder in the Heart of It All
https://invisibleshipspodcast.com/2021/04/15/circleville-letters-3/

Milky Way Repo

Blue collar Sci Fi in the vein of Firefly.
Running a starship repo company isn’t easy or cheap. It’s just an endless string of fuel costs, ship maintenance, legal red tape, unhappy debt bailers, shady associates and uncooperative dock officials from one end of the galaxy to the other.
Nathan Teller owns and operates Milky Way Repossessions, a company that tracks down and repossesses starships. He should be happy, but when a job turns into a ransom delivery for a starship crew being held hostage by a cult, he suddenly finds himself pursued by a self-immolating loan shark hell bent on collecting a gambling debt.
How will it all turn out? You never know. Especially when Nathan and his Starship repo agents are up against a cult and the mob…
Amazon * Books a Million * Barnes & Noble * EDGE
Bad Rock Beat Down

A sci-fi crime novel set in a dirty, corrupt universe.
The starship repossession agents of Milky Way Repo are sent to the desolate settlement of Bad Rock to retrieve a vessel. Once there, they become entangled with a notorious thug running a smuggling operation for the Syndicate. Struggling to do the right thing while trying to complete their job, things go seriously awry with deadly consequences.