the Hickey family mysteries are action-filled stories that transcend genre to become complex, engrossing literary works with an extra-ordinary feel for the 20th century history of California. The novels trace the exploits of a P.I. father and his sons from idyllic Lake Tahoe into gangland L.A., the San Diego/Tijuana frontier, and the wilds of Baja.
from They Died in Vain, a Drood Review Book, 2002: "Ken Kuhlken has closed the circle by writing a brilliant homage to the original literary private eyes and to the characters of film noir...stands as some of the finest historical writing in the private eye field."
And from Kirkus Reviews 2006: "[In The Do-Re-Mi] Kuhlken revisits the Hickey family in a tale as sensitive and heartfelt as it is action-packed....Crime, punishment and redemption. Kuhlken's sixth is by far his best."
Coming February 2008 from Poisoned Pen Press: "The Vagabond Virgins delivers a story in the tradition of Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory and B. Traven's Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Kuhlken knows the brutal reality of border Mexico," Gene Riehl, author of Quantico Rules and Sleeper
"There’s no other mystery writer quite like Ken Kuhlken. His private-eye novels, although they have their roots in the noir tradition, are a unique blend of cultural history, social dynamics and hard-bitten melodrama, enacted by a colorful cast whose behavior is usually unpredictable and sometimes unsettling." Robert Wade, in the San Diego Union Tribune
