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Published by The Yard: Crime Blog. A collection of Dystopian Stories.
A series of hard hitting poems about the people running this world.
Made Free: Overcoming Addiction is a book about recovering from Addiction and the Criminal Lifestyle.
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“Burning Girl” Is a book written by one of our authors, Robb White.
More of his books can be found here.
Detective Riisa Jones is a new detective with her first case as lead investigator for the Gallion, Rhode Island P.D. It’s a bad one: the body of a young woman has been set ablaze in a dumpster behind a local tavern, well known to the cops. Some of her colleagues, including her own partner “Kaz,” a veteran cop nearing retirement, wouldn’t mind seeing her fail. Riisa’s first obstacle is identifying the body. Before long, she’s neck-deep in a case that twists out of her reach every time she follows a lead. Those dead ends are piling up and so is the pressure to solve this horrific case. Riisa finds herself digging past the lies of respectable people to uncover some dirty secrets, and she had better hurry because there are killers behind those liars who are watching and paying attention to her.
Fade to Black ‘s stories present characters you might see on any street in any town anywhere. Or maybe you wondered about the guy at the end of the bar brooding over his drink. What’s he thinking about? Or the woman who cut her eyes away from you as you passed her on the street. What’s on her mind? And then you went about your day not giving another thought to that stranger. Here’s your opportunity to see what lurks beneath the surface, and it’s not pretty–malignant intentions, murderous plans, festering hatreds, and dark secrets never meant to come to light. Have fun exploring the depths of human behavior; you won’t be disappointed.
Vienna, Austria, a city of palaces, music, and cafés. But behind the cold, grey stone lies a dark secret. Against this backdrop of culture and shadows, the fates of three unforgettable people will be drawn into a common peril.
Perry Farmon is an American photographer on sabbatical in Vienna, searching for his lost creative spark. A strange friendship and a mysterious love alter Perry’s quiet world, drawing him into a shared secret. The powers threatened by that secret force Perry into a deadly flight from danger. He must learn trickery and cunning to survive. His life and love hang in the balance.
Zita de Luca is a woman marked by a wine-colored stain on her temple, the shame of her family, and anger. An opportunity for revenge is complicated by an unexpected passion for an American professor. She must choose between the two. Käru “Charlie” Villiger is a habitué of cafés, either an outrageous liar or a dangerous man. He holds the key to the past, but time is running out. Charlie must pass on what he holds before he is silenced by those he has betrayed. He must choose someone else to carry the burden.
As the lives of the characters cross, revenge shifts to passion, betrayal becomes an act of honor, and the past exacts a heavy toll from the present. The secrets of the past threaten the lives of those that hold them; the same secrets threaten the men who work in the shadows. The weight of the past will pursue Perry and Zita across two continents, threatening their love and their lives. The chase becomes a conflict of revenge and desire, of shadow and light, of love and the struggle to survive.
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In Pursuit of Happiness, Is a memoir about a man’s life that highlights major areas and concerns in our society. It’s raw, honest and it’s also a father’s open letter to the son he’d lost contact with after spending close to 30 years in prison for the murder of his wife.
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Parisa Karami has an Art Journal on The Yard: Crime Blog.
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Brazil, Indiana, is so much more than the crazed crazy quilt of fringed, frayed, fabricated dry goods of unique voice and character scored with the sore ache of waking life in the heart of the heart of the country. It’s a whirligig of worries and wonders, set piece work wigwagging out waves of distress, waves of warning, erratic centripetal directions on how to go nowhere fast.
—Michael Martone Author of Michael Martone and Winesburg, Indiana
A testimony to an era, to things hidden from public view, the people behind a home’s kitchen curtains or a barn’s swinging door. Every town should be lucky enough to have such a skilled, perceptive narrator.
—Grant Clauser Author of The Trouble with Rivers and Necessary Myths
Dad said Carl Sandburg was the only poet he understood. I’m starting to feel that way about Brian Beatty.
—Bil Lepp Storyteller and Author of The King of Little Things
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“A minimalist, a folk singer and a comic walk into a bar….and they all find comfort, like I do, in the poems of Brian Beatty.” – Alec Soth, Photographer
“Beatty’s kind and authentic, honest voice faces my own uncomfortable truths head-on. And in this sometimes hopeless world he proves to me he still knows how to cope.” — M Sarki, Author of Zimble Zamble Zumble and Mewl House
“Whenever I finish one of Beatty’s poems, I always ask myself, ‘How in the hell does he keep delivering such humanity, poignancy, wisdom and wit in only a few short lines?’ My guess is that he takes a lot of poet steroids.” — John Jodzio, Author of Knockout
“Beatty the stand-up comic and musician appears in some of these poems, addressing the world from those singular angles. But in those perhaps most moving, he joins the American tradition of John Haines, Morton Marcus, Robert Bly: the individual nakedly confronting the natural world.” — Cooper Renner, Author of Mosefolket
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What can one young boy and a group of strangers do against a powerful man bent on weaponizing dreams?
Jamie McPherson and his dog, Shem, go on a quest which takes them from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to Dartmouth College where a neurophysiologist has developed a dreaming computer named Ann. Along the way they get help from the Guardians of the Moon, creatures who carry our dreams to and from us, and some heroic people who’ve lost the ability to dream. But the NSA’s Earl Pangiosi knows that dreaming is powerful and important, and will use all his power to stop Jamie from succeeding.
What does it mean to dream, to hope? To wake up each morning with the belief that today will be better than yesterday? And if we lose the ability to hope, to dream, to wish, to believe in better tomorrows? What happens when people don’t want to dream yet can’t wake up? And what if humans aren’t the only ones who can dream?
Jamie and Shem discover where dreams are kept and who guards them, and why people are losing the ability to dream. Jamie is willing to help but to do so he must make what seems a boy’s ultimate sacrifice: the loss of his best friend and his innocence.
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Comments from print edition readers:
“Joseph is an amazing seer of the world about him and great teller of tales. Each of these pieces is a wonderful story in itself. They also share some of his insights into the world. Each one is a gem with plots, characters and settings. Don’t take the details for granted, that odd-sounding name of some character may come from some old language or tradition and is likely to have a relevant connotation. There are meanings at many levels here. His stories leave you with something to remember and reflect upon. Did I say I like them very much?”
“Engaging stories, vivid imagery and enjoyably unexpected narratives, Best of all, these amazing tales are wrapped up in a healthy dose of enlightenment (if you’re paying attention), that or the author did far too many drugs in the 60’s. Either way it’s damn entertaining! Definitely give it a read.”
“When I sit down to read, it’s usually to whisk away to another place and time, another environment. Not to “escape”, per say, but a need to find a friend or to feel adventure. Tales Told ‘Round Celestial Campfires is a visit with those whom you have a sense of knowing, a sense of déjà vu yet you don’t know why. These stories bring you to another place and then become a part of you. Read one and you’re thirsting for the next. What begins as a bit of a fantasy becomes quickly a relationship to the characters, the place. But then, you’ve been there before, haven’t you?”
“Perhaps it’s just because I’m a young adult and just beginning to understand that I am a student in life, and will be for some time going forward, but Joseph’s story about the boy with no eyes brought me to tears. Not because the boy lost his eyes, but because he had gained so much sight through the caring mentorship of an unexpected presence. Joseph is able to hold up a mirror to other people’s experiences through his writing, letting them find themselves within the pages of his book. His short stories may be works of fiction, but they are nothing short of deeply human.”
“I know what gift I will be purchasing for the readers amongst my family and friends. I received this book a few days ago after my wife purchased it for me and I can’t put it down. Within this collection of short stories are lessons on the joys and sorrows of discovering the abundance within. They are stories obviously based on the author’s experiences and they are damn good. For those who want to be inspired, for those who are on the path, and for those who just enjoy entertaining, well-written stories. Reach For Your Dreams Openly and Innocently! Very highly recommended.”
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What do you do when the ultimate weapon falls in love?
Nicholas Trailer is the last of The Augmented Men, nine severely abused and traumatized children biogenetically engineered into super soldiers beyond anything ever conceived throughout all of history. These children, modified into monsters and each capable of executing the most horrifying deeds without feeling remorse or regret, are loosed upon the enemy to help the US win a war rampaging far longer than anyone believed possible.
The war ended with Nick’s team sacrificed to the enemy as part of the truce. His team tortured and killed in front of him, Nick alone escaped, returned home, and hid deep in the northern Maine forests.
Until someone said, “I love you.”
But Nick’s never been loved, doesn’t know if he can even feel love, and for the first time since Augmentation is terrified the monster he is might destroy the woman who wants to teach him about love.
Desperate for a solution, Nick seeks out his handlers. But his handlers thought him dead, gone, a bad memory, and no longer their concern.
Nick surfaces and is quickly recognized as a threat to the government’s clandestine Augmentation Program. Those in power give Nick’s creator, Major James Donaldson, explicit orders: kill it before it kills again.
Sgt. Mike Simmons has written a book about the John F. Kennedy assassination and it’s possible links to Hank Killam from Pensacola, Florida.
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A dystopian thriller about a young couple’s life after the United States becomes a Christian nation. Seth and Maggie Ginsberg do their best to navigate an oppressive theocracy where Christianity is the only legal religion and abortion, homosexuality, and adultery are illegal. When a co-worker outs Seth as a Jew, he escapes to Mexico, but Maggie is caught by the police and sent to a savior camp. “American Judas” mixes political satire, suspense, and family drama.
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Bogdan Dragos’s poetry book
Jim Hinckley’s book about murder and mayhem on Route 66 can be purchased here.
JD Dugas moves back to his hometown of Eunice, Louisiana, to open the town’s first tattoo shop. But what seems like a perfect situation goes sideways from the get-go, and the arrival of JD’s childhood friend Curtis, an intelligence analyst from DC with delusions of grandeur, doesn’t help matters. Together, JD and Curtis use their wits, some less than legal tactics, and a little help from some old friends to take on their powerful and unscrupulous rivals.
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Constance Miller flees West Virginia to escape her abusive ex-boyfriend and joins friends in Lafayette, Louisiana, as they prepare for the annual Black Pot Festival and All Saints’ Day. But Butch will not be deterred so easily. When he tracks her to Lafayette, all hell breaks loose on Halloween night. It will take a visiting deacon from Vietnam, an ex-nun, and the boys from a popular Cajun band to pull Constance through it all. In the aftermath of tragedy, a local detective with his own troubled past begins to put the pieces together. As he closes in on the truth, Constance and her friends face dire consequences for what took place in a little country cemetery. All Saint’s Day of the Dead can be purchased Here.
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Roundin Up a Bison: Stories, is a book written by Byron Spooner who has published a short story here on The Yard: Crime Blog, and we hope for more.
Critics had this to say about about Spooner’s book.
If you’re miserable because Ray Carver is gone, and the delicious Jean Shepherd is still dead, don’t be. if you love the ringing-clear dialogue and impossibly true-to-life behavior of the characters in Daniel Woodrell (Winter’s Bone), don’t be blue, run to your local independent bookseller and get a copy of local book man Byron Spooner’s Rounding up a Bison. Hell, run between the raindrops and snag a copy and bundle up once you get home and read it. All. Tonight. You may thank me tomorrow.
—Beverly Langer, Extremely well-read Bookseller & Publishers’ Representative
With working-class wit, a strong sense of absurdity, and an ear for the conversations of not-so-wise guys, Spooner spins stories from the busted front porch of a faded American Dream. From hard-drinking Hackensack holidays to scheming, dog-eared New York booksellers, his characters eke out their livings and mistake-riddled lives calling to mind the early work of Richard Price and Richard Ford,
–Robert Mailer Anderson, author of Boonville and Windows on the World
What happens when a man goes from prison to college, and from failure to father? Incendiary Words: Sean On Fire is a collection of poems and personal essays written during and after incarceration. The inspiration behind each piece ranges from absolute heartbreak and psychological trauma to unyielding confidence, fiery ambition, and an overdeveloped sense of redemption.
We always look to the greener pastures, thinking our lives would be so much better over there, but once over there, what if all we wanted was to come back? But we find ourselves trapped with the darker side to our fears.
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I got a one-way ticket out of hell. All I need to do is drive across country with a body in the trunk and run miscellaneous errands, but a lot of those errands come with a heavy price. And if I lose the body in the trunk, then I have to go back, and I’ll be damned if I return down there. I will fight to stay here, even if there is no rest for those wicked.
Most people during their lifetime experience some contact with the spirit world. Their reactions can vary from laughing off such nonsense as coincidence to praying for the demon to leave them alone. But what would you do if a ghost wanted to be your friend? In this, the authors first book dealing with the spirit realm, she relates the true story of Norman, a ghost who has returned to become her spirit guide, protector, and friend. The story follows the first few years of their friendship and explains how the author uses her extensive experience with genealogy research as a way to prove and validate that Norman the Ghost actually existed as a real person. She successfully searches out the details of his life using clues that he gives her in their psychic communications. Along the way, they both learn some very valuable life lessons as they come to realize the reasons they are together in their current incarnations as well as the fact that they have been together in past lives. In the second part of the book, the author discovers one of those past lives when she and Norman were together as siblings. Once again, using her gifts in accessing the spirit realm and the Akashic Records, the author goes back with Norman to this past life in medieval Germany. Using the messages and information they receive in multiple visits back to this life, the author uses her research skills and techniques to find validation of multiple facets of their life together during that time.
In 1955 Harry Kavanagh’s uncle steals a ringside seat for a championship bout in Madison Square Garden. “Hey kid, out of my seat!” It’s Humphrey Bogart! Rewarding the kid for his moxie, Bogie gives him his fedora. It’s 2016 and years after the death of his wife, Felicity, Harry is still grieving. When the medical examiner commits suicide, Harry suspects his wife may have been murdered. Harry tenuously re-emerges into the world in an effort to find the truth. Along the way he is roughed up by the brawny brothers he nicknames the Liverwurst Twins, nearly drowns during a Nor’easter, is threatened by a mobster, and is rescued by a shadowy woman who is known to Harry only by the scent of her perfume. Armed with an acerbic tongue and an awakening rage, the once sedentary college professor serves out his sabbatical dishing out easy violence and a lecture to anyone who has the audacity to get in his way. Harry’s sidekick is his beloved Great Dane, Lolly. They’re assisted by his college-age son training to be a ballet dancer, his girlfriend, and an avenging angel living off the grid. Catching a murderer and donning Bogart’s hat as the ultimate reward are on Harry Kavanagh’s menu and within his grasp. Robert Honor is a graduate of Moravian College and NYU. He lives in the New York City area with his family and Great Dane, Pink.
Alex is framed by his ex-best friend Lou and fired for illegal drug use, dumped by his girlfriend, and mugged all in the same day.
After sending an anonymous letter to the newspaper’s owner claiming to have seen a fellow technician switch the drug test vials, Alex decides to head south for a new start and warmer weather.
He hunts for a new job along the way but no one wants to hire the big city newspaper reporter who supposedly was a drug addict. Although he protests his innocence, he can’t prove he was framed.
When an editor takes a chance and gives him a job as a crime reporter he is thrilled. Dell, his counterpart at the rival newspaper, isn’t.
Everything is going great for Alex until he receives death threats. Someone wants to kill him slowly with a knife.
The suspects are:
Lou – Alex’s anonymous letter got him fired when the newspaper did another drug test.
Dell – a gay rival newspaper reporter who thinks that one crime reporter in the city is enough.
Domino – the hit man who uses a knife to kill victims.
Who sent the death threats? Will Alex find true love with a gay reporter or his new female bodyguard? Or will the hit man get him?
Read the 42,000 word novel and find out.
Grimes’ Punishment by H.A.L. Wagner
“The action is gut wrenching in it’s realism, the characters described so well they get you either mad or give you a hard-on.” –Sons of Spade http://sonsofspade.blogspot.com/
A gripping example of vigilante justice that won’t be forgotten. In the vein of anti-heroes like Mikey Spillane’s Mike Hammer and Paul Kersey of Death Wish, comes a new PI Roger Grimes in his first novel. The first in this new series. Read how it all begins. Roger Grimes was a thief. At thirty, he knew it couldn’t last so he became a private investigator hoping to right past wrongs. His first case went smoothly. Big shot Attorney Willis Sanford hands him his second case, find a runaway teen girl in Daytona Beach, FL. What he finds is the stuff of nightmares. The sunny coastal town casts dark shadows and in them Grimes discovers a sex trafficking ring. Grimes must make a choice, turn it over to the cops or see it through to the end and unleash a violent storm on those who would hurt the most innocent among us.
Can be purchased at Amazon along with the other books in the series and H.A.L’s other titles.
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“Forget it, Jake. It’s Schenectady: The True Story Behind “The Place Beyond the Pines””
By David Bushman.
Stranger things do tend to happen in Schenectady—once a booming metropolis nicknamed the “City That Lights and Hauls the World” thanks to the dominating presence of General Electric and the American Locomotive Company, though those days are ancient history. GE has nearly abandoned the city, and ALCO closed up shot over fifty years ago. Hence, the title of this book: Forget It, Jake, It’s Schenectady: A Police Department Under Siege, and the Man Who Led It, a nod to the bleak conclusion of the classic film Chinatown, one of cinema’s most devastating expressions of abject resignation and defeat. A chance meeting between onetime Schenectady Police Chief Gregory Kaczmarek and author David Bushman in a Lyft car that Kaczmarek was driving was the genesis of this book, originally intended to track the rise and fall of a veteran cop with what appear to be two defining traits—an almost inhuman capacity for perseverance and a truly remarkable ability to attract notoriety and criticism. However, as the author’s research—including interviews with over two dozen people who lived through the events depicted in these pages.
Murder at Teal’s Pond: Hazel Drew and the Mystery That Inspired Twin Peaks.
By David Bushman and Mark T. Givens
In 1908, Hazel Drew was found floating in a pond in Sand Lake, New York, beaten to death. The unsolved murder inspired rumors, speculation, ghost stories, and, almost a century later, the phenomenon of Twin Peaks. Who killed Hazel Drew? Like Laura Palmer, she was a paradox of personalities―a young, beautiful puzzle with secrets. Perhaps the even trickier question is, Who was Hazel Drew?
Seeking escape from her poor country roots, Hazel found work as a domestic servant in the notoriously corrupt metropolis of Troy, New York. Fate derailed her plans for reinvention. But the investigation that followed her brutal murder was fraught with red herrings, wild-goose chases, and unreliable witnesses. Did officials really follow the leads? Or did they bury them to protect the guilty?
The likely answer is revealed in an absorbing true mystery that’s ingeniously reconstructed and every bit as haunting as the cultural obsession it inspired.
“Your hands are screaming,” Moira explains, watching my compulsively wringing hands. “You’ve seen things, maybe even done things, that you can’t afford to remember.”
In the story that lent its title to this volume, the unnamed narrator struggles to remember his past. But what is the past? In some of these stories, a sense of the past creates the backdrop for almost prosaic characters in unexpected, or unimaginable, situations. In others, the time and place may feel familiar, even nostalgic, but the events often exist outside the realm of normality. Teleportation in the office lunch room? A very real descendant of a fictional character? An alternate way famous artworks might have been created? An apparently ordinary old woman who may be an angel, or perhaps a being our collective unconscious hasn’t dreamed of yet?
In this collection, Harry Neil’s characters interact with his created realities of time and place in ways that make you laugh, cry, cringe, sigh, or groan. But the one thing you won’t do is guess what will happen next.
Crime Stories by K.A. Williams
High school friends meet again, but they’re on opposite sides of the law. Bookstore owners blackmail an author. A pickpocket’s chance at an easy job goes all wrong. Be wary of hitchhikers. 17 crime fiction stories. Bonus poem. Previously published as Crime Tales: A Short Story Collection.
Tour of Intrigue by K.A. Williams
A covert government agency intends to stop their former accountant, Richardson, from testifying against them, but they don’t know his location. They do know that an artist, Chris, is going to paint Richardson’s portrait before the trial. Chris is supposed to be contacted during a singles tour of the mountain region where Richardson is hiding out, and the meeting will be arranged.
Double agent CJ, codenamed Chameleon, is given the assignment to impersonate Chris in order to get to Richardson. Then he is to impersonate Richardson at the trial and give false testimony that will exonerate the covert agency.
Iceman, Chameleon’s evil partner, wants to kill everyone who interferes with the plan. Sandman, Chameleon’s other partner, is supposed to guard Chris while CJ is impersonating him.
Chris, ignorant of the plot against him, meets Millicent and falls in love with her. He enjoys the mountain tour, and has a lot of fun at the western town where costumed actors have shoot-outs, bank robberies, and rob stagecoaches.
Martin, the tour guide for the Back-To-Basics Singles Tour, is responsible for the safety of his 7 tourists, some of which are not on the tour just for fun. He overhears Chameleon and Iceman talking about their plans at the waterfall, and learns that Chris has been kidnapped.
Can Martin rescue Chris? Which side is CJ really on? Will Richardson get to testify or do the bad guys win?
Read the 35,000 word novella and find out.
Question of Vendetta by K.A. Williams
College students Morgan and his girlfriend Emma plan to make love in her SUV. They’re parked behind the bookstore when men in ski masks interrupt them. They drag Morgan out of the vehicle and beat him, showing no signs of stopping until Frankie drives up. The men leave quickly in the SUV taking Emma away from Morgan.
Frankie, who used to be a paramedic, takes the injured boyfriend home with him, because Morgan recognized the tattoo on a man’s wrist and knows that man is a cop.
Morgan now understands that Emma’s father, who’s rich and powerful, had him beaten up by crooked cops. Afraid that Emma’s father wants him dead, he assumes another name. “Marty” works (and lives) at Frankie’s Pizzeria with Frankie, his wife, Angela, and their daughter until tragedy strikes five years later.
Did the family’s enemies from Italy seek revenge in the name of vendetta or was someone else behind the crimes committed? Will Morgan, aka Marty, come face to face with Emma or her father again and what will be the outcome of such a meeting?
Read the 36,000 word mystery/crime novella and find out.
In Our Blood: The Mafia Families of Corleone By Justin Cascio
The Mafia is usually described as hierarchical, with capos and soldiers reporting to a boss. IN OUR BLOOD proceeds from a different view: that the Mafia’s principal organizational units are the mafioso and his immediate family. Pivotal figures in Mafia history, including present-day mafiosi, have direct genealogical ties to one another and to the earliest recorded Mafia gangs in Corleone. Organizing around the sacred bonds of blood, marriage, and godparenthood has proven vital to the success of the Sicilian Mafia in the United States. This fully referenced genealogical history of the Mafia families of Corleone names dozens of gangsters and their relationships to one another. The conclusions drawn from sociological and historical evidence are striking and have implications for Mafia families — and the rest of us. Whether your interest in the organization, migration, psychology, and family systems of the Mafia is personal or academic, this book is for you.
William Higgs dives deep into the heart of Buddhism and ultimate sentience via the life of Eugene, clown and former mime, and that road to understanding is a hilarious one.
IE: eating with mimes at a Chuck-E-Cheese… “It was a tense, silent meal.”
What more can one say?!
Packed with irony and rage and surprise twists and shifting layers of gooey reality, you will laugh your head off while you wander the mind-labyrinth of Scanlon’s Overpass. Complete with a mic drop ending. No, no one dropped LSD into your coffee. It’s the book! It’s a fun, fast, Mariana-Trench-deep read that shouldn’t be missed.
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, There are no second acts in American lives. Sadly, for most Americans occupying that thinnest strip of land between poverty and the grave, rarely does America afford so much as a first act or even prologue. Nobody’s Coming Home introduces readers to several such doomed citizens from Lake County, Indiana. Their immutable characteristics differ. Their fates do not. Born under the heels of Uncle Sam’s cruelest boots, they will struggle for a peek at daylight. Some might call these characters low lives. Some might call them losers. To dismiss them as beneath anyone else is to miss the beauty of the fight, the desire to sneak up and snatch the tiniest piece of the dying American Dream.
Alec Cizak returns to the fictional towns of Haggard, Lublin, and Pawpaw Grove for brief, graphic exercises in contemporary noir. These stories do not offer safety. They offer the truth. They offer the last honest examination of how bad decisions aren’t so much made as they are imposed.
“Nobody’s Coming Home is a valentine to the Raymonds: Chandler and Carver. Minimalist, unsentimental, unflinching, character rich, this book is a must for anyone who loves crime stories, or just good writing.”
—Chelsea Cain
New York Times Bestseller
“Cizak’s prose is sharper than a blade held against your neck—he will give you the dreadful truth, and you will keep coming back for more.”
—Matt Phillips
Author of Countdown, Know Me from Smoke, and A Good Rush of Blood
Filled with pulse-pounding intrigue, Lunatic will keep you guessing until the shocking end.
When Detective Danielle Foster returns to the 66th Precinct after a maternity leave gone wrong, the unforeseeable death of her infant son who died of SIDS isn’t the only tragedy weighing heavily on her mind. The latest female victim, found naked and brutally bludgeoned to death in the middle of Brooklyn’s largest park, stirs in her dark ruminations she can’t shake.
Recently transferred from Vice as a means to appease his overbearing wife, Detective Carter Dobbs has a lot to prove at the Special Victims Unit, and his new partner, Danny hasn’t exactly welcomed him with open arms. As they charge headlong into a puzzling and increasingly disturbing investigation that takes them from picturesque Prospect Park to the seedy underbelly of NYC’s modeling world, these brilliant and tireless investigators will stop at nothing to crack the case, even if it means putting their own complicated lives on hold.
What seemed at first to be a horrific but impulsive crime proves to have wider implications and soon the full extent of the killer’s demented work becomes clear. Suspending hostilities, Danny and Carter barrel ahead in hot pursuit of a cold-blooded killer who draws them deeper and deeper towards the wicked truth, one which will threaten to shatter everything the detectives thought they knew about justice.
In the city where crime never sleeps, Danny and Carter must battle their own personal demons as well as a killer more depraved than any they’ve hunted before. But will they survive the investigation when it begins to strike far too close to home?
wo dead junkies. One missing girl. And a deranged killer who plays God like the devil.
Brooklyn’s grittiest neighborhood delivers another gruesome crime to Special Victims Unit detectives Danielle Foster and Carter Dobbs, this time a double homicide that quickly proves to be one of the most complex cases the 66th precinct has ever encountered.
The evidence is lacking. No one’s talking. But as the killer’s perverse motive, stemming from the darkest form of revenge, surfaces one unsettling photo at a time, Danny and Carter understand in an instant they’re dealing with a criminal who plays God, devising his own definitions of right and wrong, and inflicting horrific punishments with chilling, religious overtones.
And he’s also holding a little girl captive.
As the case becomes high-profile, the investigation takes Carter into territory that hits dangerously close to home, pushing him beyond his personal limits and drawing him into a disturbingly familiar world connected by child abduction and a past he’s worked hard to forget.
Meanwhile, Danny finds herself tangled in the knots of a dark, family secret—one with twisted consequences that soon tighten like a noose around her neck—and hunting the killer, whose target shifts onto those closest to Carter, becomes a challenge she can barely face.
Carter’s very identity is tested as he grapples with issues of conscience and survival in a struggle that pushes him to the very edge of the fine line between cop and criminal, and beyond. He’ll need every skill he’s learned to defeat his worst nightmare—and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
***Author’s note: CRANK is the serial extension of the first installment of The Kensington Killers and will be best enjoyed only after the first book, LUNATIC has been read.***
Packed with twists and dark turns, Maniac presents a riveting tale of family secrets, homicidal justice, and the harrowing message that everyone is capable of murder.
Another brutal murder has been committed in Kensington, but detectives Danielle Foster and Carter Dobbs don’t understand why they’ve been assigned the case. The dead man, a professional ballet dancer, wasn’t a “special victim,” but he was a member of the wealthiest family in Brooklyn. And the killer attempted to disguise the homicide as a badly staged suicide.
Lieutenant Martin Franco has been quietly tracking a judge he doesn’t trust. When Bobby Campopiano is found hanged to death at the Brooklyn Ballet, Franco pulls strings to get his best S.V.U. detectives on the case. Franco is convinced the dirty judge has taken bribes from the Campopiano crime family. He finally has his shot at taking down the corrupt judge, but only if Danny and Carter can navigate two investigations without coming undone.
As Danny teeters on the brink of personal destruction, her own family matters having reached a fever-pitch, she presses into the investigation with everything she’s got. Danny and Carter follow perplexing clues that lead deeper into Brooklyn’s elite society, and quickly learn that anyone can be bought for the right price.
The third installment of The Kensington Killers can only be described as psychological suspense at its finest.
Farewell And Goodbye, My Maltese Sleep by William Kitcher
In the second funniest novel ever written, a mysterious woman hires L.A. private dick Dave Wyznicki. She’s not who she says she is and, as it turns out, she doesn’t even look like herself. Her story is probably a lie, but that doesn’t deter Wyznicki from entering a world of valuable coins, missing sisters, Hollywood, baseball, HUAC, shady nightclubs, and a myriad of nefarious characters. And he may even have a chance with Ava Gardner.
Haunting and harrowing visions of All Hallows’ Eve here include horrific crimes committed on October 31st, a honeymoon homicide, mysterious witches, amorous vampires, dead serious poltergeists, along with a pageant of autumnal imagery sure to evoke goosebumps beyond the spooky season.
Wearing the cunning costume of a Hallowe’en poetry collection, 24 poems reimagine macabre true crimes and explore injustices brought to life by original artwork.
With a sprinkling of dark humor and a full measure of compassion, “Felones de Se: Poems about Suicide” is surprising, quirky, and a riveting read. Inspired by actual suicides, one of them a blood relative, these poems are resonant, impossibly moving, bittersweet, and strange. “Inspired by actual suicides, LindaAnn LoSchiavo’s poems are impressive and utterly riveting. Their accuracy of detail edges on the uncanny.” “Suicide, Volume 1: A collection of poetry & short prose from writers around the world on the themes of suicide and self-harm” – Robin Barratt, Editor-in-Chief, The Poet Magazine “A gritty and truthful collection, LoSchiavo excavates beauty from pain and pain from beauty with expert hands. ” – Charlie Fabri, Editor-in-Chief, Swim Press
Apprenticed to the Night is a collection of sixty-six works of poetry and prose by LindaAnn LoSchiavo. The book explores themes of life and death, childhood, trauma, family, and love, with a dash of Italian ancestry and culture.
The poems in Apprenticed to the Night are characterized by their sharp imagery, lyrical language, and emotional depth. LoSchiavo’s poems are often personal and introspective, and they explore a wide range of emotions, from joy to sorrow, love to loss.
The book is divided into three sections: “Youth,” “Maturity,” and “Beyond.” The poems in the “Youth” section reflect on LoSchiavo’s early years, and they deal with the joys and sorrows of growing up. The poems in the “Mature” section explore relationships and offer insights into the complexities of family life. The poems in the “Beyond” section deal with death, loss, and the afterlife.
“The Dolls of Byard’s Leap”:
1889. Josiah Franklin, an auctioneer, is dispatched to a decaying estate to assess a peculiar asset: an enormous collection of dolls. As Franklin catalogues the dolls, strange occurrences begin to plague the crumbling house. Noises in the night. Dolls found moved in the mornings. A madwoman escapes from Bedlam. A gothic murder mystery steeped in atmosphere and dread, The Dolls of Byard’s Leap is perfect for fans of Susan Hill, Wilkie Collins, and the eerie elegance of M.R. James.
“The Witch of Treblinka”:
The Witch of Treblinka is a reimagining of the classic fairy tale, Hansel and Grethel, written by the Brothers Grimm.
Set during World War II, in Eastern Europe, it tells the tale of a Roma family fleeing the persecution of the Nazis. It tells of two Roma children, Hansel and Grethel, who are abandoned in a great forest by their father and evil stepmother.
It is when they are lost in the forest that the two children step into a more dangerous situation than mere abandonment – for they encounter a former Nazi death camp guard, who has the terrible nickname of the Witch of Treblinka, earned by her reputation for torture and cannibalism and the black robe she habitually wore.
The Witch of Treblinka retells the classic story, with far reaching and enhanced wartime historical insights and a vivid and lively cultural exploration of the Roma Gypsies. It is set against deep background character development and fleshed-out, immersive descriptions, transforming a children’s fairy tale into an adult story of persecution, terror, unthinkable crime, and murder.
This YA sword & sorcery quest tale is filled with memorable deeds of bravery, selfless determination, courage and unassailable love, set against a background of war, sorcery, betrayal, bloody conflict and great tragedy. The story is populated by a huge cast of diverse characters, including heroic warriors, fantastic creatures, evil beings, huge monsters, and unexpected and comical allies.
A beginners guide to wildlife safaris, camping trips and expeditions to Africa. This handy book is a complete African wildlife safari and adventure travel companion for both guides and the guided. There are modular sections covering preparation and planning, group leadership, mountains, communications, wilderness survival, accidents and emergencies, first aid, camp and kitchen hygiene, food and water requirements, camping and mountain climbing equipment, packing and stowing kit, off-road driving, vehicle preparedness and maintenance, camping codes of conduct, and wildlife confrontation protocols.It is designed to take with you in your rucksack or glove compartment so as to be referenced both in quiet moments or in emergencies.
This handbook is designed to improve and enhance the knowledge and professionalism of International Tour Leaders and National Driver-Guides conducting photographic safaris in East Africa.
It comprises the fundamental yet essential knowledge required to work skilfully and professionally with safari clients in East Africa and beyond, ensuring their safety, comfort, and satisfaction.
The better the trip, the bigger the tip!
The subjects covered include:
Meeting and transporting clients; handling luggage, procedures at airports, hotels, and park entrances, etc.; vehicle knowledge, daily checks, servicing, on and off-road driving advice, generic Codes of Conduct, wildlife terminology, behavior, and interpretation.
For those tour leaders and guides who wish to progress beyond guiding vehicle safaris, there are modules on conducting camping and walking safaris. These include interpreting flora and fauna on foot, group leadership skills, wildlife confrontation, emergency evacuation from the bush, etc.
A Beginners guide to climbing mountains in the Rift Valley of East Africa. The most famous of all volcanoes in the Rift Valley of East Africa is Mount Kilimanjaro; but there are a few other high mountains to climb too: these are Mount Meru, Mount Elgon, Mount Hanang and the active volcano, Ol Doinyo Lengai. Although these are non-technical ascents (i.e. not requiring harnesses, ropes, crampons, etc.,), make no mistake; these are real ‘climbs’ on real mountains and not mere strolls up big hills.This little book gives a Mountain Leader’s insight to the climbs and shows inexperienced or first-time climbers what the tour company glossy brochures do not, and helps them properly prepare for what to expect… blow-by-blow, warts and all!
Jake is a police detective in New York City. He’s half-Vietnamese, half-Jewish, and completely troubled. Jake left his hometown of Buckskill Falls in upstate New York ten years earlier, swearing he’d never return. But he’s forced to go back when his father dies, and remains there after his best friend from high school, Richie, is murdered. Complicating matters is Jake’s previous, intense relationship with Charlotte-Anne, Richie’s beautiful, beguiling, and possibly dangerous widow. Jake’s investigation into Richie’s murder also sets him on a collision course with the psychotic and sadistic James “Nitro” Nitrowski, once Jake’s high school nemesis and now a corrupt police officer. As Jake uncovers long-buried secrets and learns how little he really knew of what went on in high school, he begins to see ghostly visions of a long-dead classmate. Could her mysterious suicide ten years ago on graduation night have something to do with Richie’s murder?
Set in the 1980s and 90s and touching on issues including sexual harassment, bullying, racism, and homophobia, No Time For Bullshit updates the classic hard-boiled detective novel without losing any of the qualities that make that genre so enduring.