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J. Michael Orenduff
All six existing books in J. Michael Orenduff's award-winning "Pot Thief" murder mystery series have just been released in new editions with snappy new covers and fresh edits by his new Publisher, Open Road.The first book in the series, The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras, won the national Dark... show more

All six existing books in J. Michael Orenduff's award-winning "Pot Thief" murder mystery series have just been released in new editions with snappy new covers and fresh edits by his new Publisher, Open Road.The first book in the series, The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras, won the national Dark Oak Mystery Contest, and the Kindle version won the EPIC eBook Mystery of the Year for 2009. It was also named New Mexico Book of the Year. The second book in the series,The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy, won the Best Fiction Book of the Year for 2010 from the Public Safety Writers Association, and the Kindle version won the EPIC eBook Mystery of the Year for 2009. This was the first time that two books in the same series had won back to back "Eppies." The most impressive award is the Lefty, awarded to The Pot Thief Who Studied Einstein at the Left Coast Crime Conference in Santa Fe for the best humorous mystery of the year. Mike received his M.A. from the University of New Mexico and his doctorate from Tulane University, and he taught at universities in seven states and three countries before starting a writing career after taking early retirement (or, as his friends describe it, a midlife crisis). The seventh Pot Thief book will be out later in 2014. One of Mike's stage plays, The Christmas Visitor, had its world premier in December, 2013 at The Pasadena Little Theater to full houses for all ten performances. The play won the 2009 Jewel Box Playwriting Contest, and has also received recognition from the Solano Repertory Playwriting Contest in California, the McClaren Comedy Contest in Texas and was selected as one of the "Top 100" by Writers Digest. Mike loves to hear from readers and theater patrons: ThePotThief@gmail.com
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Amber's Thoughts
Amber's Thoughts rated it 6 years ago
In my opinion, no one writes better beginnings than Orenduff. The opening chapter is a masterpiece. Lured to one of New Mexico’s remote ancient cliff dwellings by a stranger who gives him directions and a unique pot to sell, Hubie Schuze gets into an almost impossible-to-get-out-of situation, strand...
Amber's Thoughts
Amber's Thoughts rated it 8 years ago
My delight in reading the Pot Thief books never fades. As I dive into each story, I find something cozy and familiar and yet full of surprises, a quality much like pot thief Hubie Schuze’s happy hour conversations over margaritas with his friend Susannah. This book has the best opening I’ve read i...
Amber's Thoughts
Amber's Thoughts rated it 9 years ago
Hubie Schuze never sets out to be an amateur sleuth, but when bad luck pushes him uncomfortably close to a crime, he’s tries to figure out what’s going on. He’s not stealing pots in this book, but making them, at Schnitzel, the—of all things—Austrian restaurant in Santa Fe that hires Hubie to make s...
Amber's Thoughts
Amber's Thoughts rated it 9 years ago
This is not an interstate kind of a story; it’s a back road drive with a raconteur at the wheel. There’s a wonderful pot in a remote place, and it takes a bit of a hike and some excavation to find it. Brush off another layer, and there it is, an intact marvel of original workmanship. The old pots w...
Amber's Thoughts
Amber's Thoughts rated it 9 years ago
This series feels like a get-together with friends. I enjoy the characters’ company as much as I enjoy the plots. The intelligence and humor make every page shine, as Hubie steals for the greater good with insights inspired by Ptolemy’s study of the motion of planets. The mystery includes not only a...
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