When Tony Cerminaro started writing his mystery series, the nurse practitioner planned to draw on his medical background in the hematology/oncology department at Upstate University Hospital. He crafted the fictional doctor Hank Milson as a main character in his first book, "The Ten Knife Murders." Hank returns for a new mystery in Cerminaro's latest novel, "Bonding Over Bullets."

This second book continues Cerminaro's "Andersson and Stefani" series, in which each novel presents fictional investigators Nicklaus Andersson and Roxanne Stefani with a stand-alone mystery. Similar to "Law and Order," Cerminaro said, the investigators' plotlines develop across books in the series. In "Bonding Over Bullets," for example, the romantic relationship between Roxanne and Hank develops in the context of a murder case involving a dangerous aphrodisiac drug.

"It's got a very intense plot," Cerminaro said. "It's kind of like reading a movie."

Although Cerminaro lives in Liverpool, he set his series in North Carolina so that Hank can take advantage of research opportunities at the prominent universities there. But Central New York references still crop up, he said. Hank attended Syracuse University, for example, and played lacrosse for the Orange. "I reference all the great seasons they've had," Cerminaro said of the lacrosse team.

"Bonding Over Bullets" was released in October 2014 and is currently available online. He recommends it for an adult audience. The third book in the series, "The Manuscript Murders," recently became available online as well.

You can listen to an interview with Cerminaro about how he writes his books that aired on WRVO Public Media in June.

This article appears in the summer 2015 issue of Upstate Health magazine.