Frank Fisher is nothing. He wants to be something. When a mysterious young woman named Bonnie offers assistance by injecting seeds of inspiration directly into his brain, Frank finds himself involved in a twisting mystery full of addiction, desperation and self-discovery. Broken Bulbs, a novella by Eddie Wright, tells the story of the lengths one young man will go in the pursuit of “somethingness.”

Praise for Broken Bulbs:
“…a brilliant and stunningly original work, by far the best novel I read in 2008.”
- Alternative Reel

“as authentic as they come, experimental without trying to be intentionally obscure, dark without making you doubt humanity, smart and energetic. In short, it’s great writing.”
“…it’s about obsession, self-negation, love, even God (“The Everything”), making Broken Bulbs an entirely unique take on a subject. It’s a science fictional, hard-boiled, poetic vision of drug addiction and hamsters (read it!) A great addition to a genre that has never existed before.”
- Self-publishing Review

“…this slim volume is the bastard child of Memento and William S Burroughs, absolutely not for the faint of heart nor for anyone seeking a nice, simple beach read.”
- Jason Pettus, The Chicago Center for for Literature and Photography

“An existentialist’s dream, the author has dug in deep and laid bare the raw emotion so candidly that we can actually feel the futility, the desperation, and the humour.”

“Philip Dick would be proud.”
- POD People

“…the absolute perfect spot-on portrait of the mind of an addict.”
“The first chapter alone is a nauseating churn of short choppy staccato sentences, random thoughts and actions, that read like beat poetry at a slam.”
“The whole thing is filled with crazy quips and one liners worthy of a high lighter so you can memorize and use them later.”
- The LL Book Review

“…strangely complex and fascinating.”
- Kaye Trout’s Book Reviews

   In the runup to the war in Iraq, dozens of intelligence operatives watched their careers evaporate when they spoke candidly about Saddam’s lack of weapons of mass destruction. One such case officer, now unwillingly retired and living in Las Vegas, finds himself a target for assassination.

   The Last Days of Las Vegas is the story of Ashor dur-Shamshi, a powerful military exile from Iraq who pulls the strings of an international conspiracy that will return him as Iraq’s new dictator, and of Charles Remly, who struggles to dismantle the centerpiece of the ex-general’s conspiracy. Fueled with billions of dollars from Saddam’s looted fortune, the tentacles of Ashor’s plot reach from his war-torn homeland to the glittery streets of Las Vegas, and much of the world in between. At the heart of the plan is an event that will wake up the American people and confront the power brokers inside the Beltway with two grim alternatives: Reinstitute the military draft, or help install a military government in Baghdad that will end Iraq’s expanding conflict, while searching for the bogus terrorist organization that has created a mini-Chernobyl in Las Vegas.
   The ragtag team that defends Vegas against a nuclear meltdown is led by Remly, a middle-aged spook who was forced into early retirement during the runup to the war against Iraq because he insisted on sending proof to his headquarters in Virginia that Saddam had no N-B-C weapons. Cynical and burned out, Remly has a serious heart condition and is a significantly less-than-heroic hero. Spiritually and philosophically Remly is closer to Leamas of le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold—and perhaps Meursault of The Stranger—than he is to the macho characters of modern spy fiction. He’s not entirely disconnected, but he is devious, seemingly unprincipled, and isn’t above shooting an adversary in the back. Best illustrating Remly’s take on the world is the opening of Chapter 10:

   “Reality is negotiable, or so Remly was given to understand his first week on the Campus in Virginia. By the time he retired and moved to Las Vegas he concluded that reality was merely optional, and Vegas did nothing to disabuse him of the idea.”

   Similarly betrayed, two old men on the team—retired from the upper echelons of the nameless intell agency in Virginia—were denied follow-on consultancy contracts because they refused to drink the Koolaid coming from inside the Beltway. One of them—an amateur magician—has a bit of a drinking problem … Leopold Gourmel cognac, not Koolaid. The other—a cranky old black-ops and regime-change specialist— has spinal disc damage and needs a walker to get around.
   Another intelligence operative, described as being “a little light in his loafers,” was fired because of his sexual orientation, despite Remly’s defense of him. Then there’s a voodooman—an electronics genius also retired from the agency—who verges on a paranoid breakdown toward the end, when he’s strung out on sleep deprivation and gets wired on uppers. Rounding out the group are three sociopathic thugs from South Boston—”Neanderthals” the voodooman calls them—recruited for their black-bag skills.
   Obviously, this is not a team of super-heroes.

   Complicating Remly’s task are the alliances that Ashor forms with K Street lobbyists, pols on the Hill, and a cabal within the agency in Virginia - thus turning Virginia, which should be resisting Ashor, against Remly’s team. And so The Last Days of Las Vegas is as much a political thriller as it is an espionage caper.
   Remly’s adversaries are equally complex and dysfunctional. Ashor is a loving husband, father, and grandfather who decides to nuke Las Vegas without a moment’s hesitation. The coördinator of the strike against Vegas is a pious, one-time Dzerzhinsky Square black-arts cadet, rumored to have chosen the Service over the Seminary on the flip of a coin, his piety no obstacle to his job of bringing death and disaster to thousands of people. Then there’s a flashy Crimean remote-control assassin, another Dzerzhinsky Square cadet, who trolls the vodka bars of Moscow in his Student Prince parade-ground uniform looking for casual sex. And an Iraqi pilot with little if any religious conviction, driven to this suicide mission by a military strike against his family at a wedding party.

   The important conflict in The Last Days of Las Vegas doesn’t come from people shooting each other. Oh, there are gunfights and bombings and whole buildings destroyed, and all sorts of similar derring-do, but the real conflict comes from people trying to overcome one another through a sort-of mental kung fu— each trying to bring down his adversary with ideas and working deviously to sandbag the other’s emotions —something at which Remly excels. He likes to think of it as “manipulative empathy.” (Some might call it “mind ****ing” - though you and I and Remly never would!)

   Roy Hayes is the author of The Hungarian Game, which sold just under 520,000 copies in 6 languages worldwide.

SHE DARED TO CHALLENGE A MERCILESS KILLER

EPPIE WINNER~BEST THRILLER

Raised in an atmosphere of violence and unpredictability, Ellen and Gail Morgan have banded together, survivors of a booze-fertilized battleground, forming a fierce united front against an often cold and uncaring world. When their parents are killed in a car crash, Ellen becomes the mother figure for Gail.

When fifteen years later Gail is brutally raped and murdered in her shabby New York basement apartment, practically on the eve of her big breakthrough as a singer, Ellen is inconsolable. Rage at her younger sister’s murder has nearly consumed her. So when her work as a psychologist wins her an appearance on the evening news, Ellen seizes the moment. Staring straight into the camera, she challenges the killer to come out of hiding: “Why don’t you come after me? I’ll be waiting for you.”

Phone calls flood the station, but all leads go nowhere. The police investigation seems doomed to failure. Then it happens: a note, written in red ink, slipped under the windshield wipers of her car, ‘YOU’RE IT.’ Ellen has stirred the monster in his lair and the hunter has become the hunted!

“If you are looking for the suspense thriller of the year-look no further you will find it in Nowhere To Hide…”

– Jewel Dartt Midnight Scribe Reviews

IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT DOWN…! 5 STARS
Extremely well structured, good plot, realistic and credible characters. It is the ordinariness of the actors in the play that make this book excellent. It’s a type of puzzle with each story, seemingly unconnected to each other, falling into place at the end. An example is Myra (a friend of Ellen’s) who, due to her affection for Ellen, is able to re-live extremely painful events that she had removed from her past. The latter will prove vital for the conclusion of the story. The serial killer is presented in the first chapter thirteen years before the events take place, a chapter fundamental as Ellen goes through pain, physical and emotional, to find the strength she needs to challenge her sister’s killer. In conclusion one can say that Nowhere to hide is impossible to put down until the last page is reached.

– Bastulli Mystery Library

Giles, my sibling, my Mephistophilis. You lie whenever it suits you, but when you lie to me, surely you can take the trouble to make it convincing?

Simon Coltraine is a professional songwriter and musician. His brother Giles - trader, rogue and amiable bully - is a crook. When Giles is killed in a car accident Simon returns to their childhood home to confront his memories and his own complicity in his brother’s schemes.

The Devil has all the best tunes.

Eva thought she could outrun the plagues, but she was wrong. The bio-hackers that ripped the world raw are targeting her hometown of Prague, and this time there may be no escaping it.

Now, hunted by police who think she’s a hacker herself, Eva must brave the rotting city streets to find her mother before it’s too late. But with a ruthless agent known as a “Healer” on the prowl, it may only be a matter of time before Eva becomes another victim of his blood-soaked carnage.

In this snowy, ash-strewn apocalypse, Eva’s greatest fear is this new threat may not be coincidence at all… it may be personal.

“A gripping, scary viruscore tale.”

— io9.com

“MCM is one of the most unique voices working in SciFi today.”

— Martin Gero, Producer, Stargate: Atlantis, Stargate: Universe

Nano Wars is a techno-thriller of a world unknowingly gripped in conflict by the emergence of dark uses of nano technology and the amazing nano based devices and weaponry it brought with it, a new era of hybrid soldiers and warfare. Nano Technology had been introduced into society with much fanfare, specifically in the medical field and had generated new levels of investments in medical companies utilizing such technology based procedures. However, as the nano based procedures were made available, their costs proved to be too costly for the masses. This caused a tremendous tremor in nano companies as they scrambled to reinvent themselves or close operations. This tremor caused a severe crack in morality, out of which was born a new form of espionage and warfare. Any force armed with this technology is invisible to their enemy, able to kill hundreds, thousands, in seconds and can penetrate any facility at will. The problem, this technology was introduced by the wrong side and it is DATIS’s job to recreate itself, fast. DATIS is scrambling to meet this challenge by creating a new hybrid army molded out of new soldier classifications and weapons, but time is short and the world is hanging in the balance.

Ghost is possibly the best bounty hunter in the universe and he always gets the job done. At least, that’s the reputation that he rides on. When the DAP employ him to track down and capture a rogue Magicker that’s running across the galaxy killing anyone that gets in his way, Ghost realises that this is a job that could cost him his reputation. It’s also a job that could cost him his sanity.

This is the first Ghost Of The Black novella from RealmShift and MageSign author Alan Baxter. Further novellas in the series are forthcoming.

Joe Tompkins was having a bad day at the office: boring meetings, pointless assignments, and this feeling that he was being watched. When he could take no more, he did what anyone would do. He knocked out his co-worker with a keyboard and escaped. From cube-dwelling author Josh McMains comes a dark comedy that brings conspiracy back to corporate America. Uncubicled follows the drastic series of events that would take one man from his mid-level desk job to an elaborate getaway from the long arm of the law-and perhaps something even more sinister. Along the way, Joe crosses paths with former friends whose destinies have been intertwined from the start. Joe encounters mystery, adventure, and car trouble as he struggles to find out what he was always meant to do and who, exactly, wants him dead. And you thought your job sucked.

It took a chapter or two to familiarize myself with the authors writing style, but after that was accomplished, this book was fantastic. There are many plot twists and turns that keep you intrigued the entire book. This is not meant to be a life changing book, but is perfect for a little time away from everything so you can really be entertained. If you are thinking about purchasing Uncubicled for the Kindle, it is money WELL spent. Kudos to Mr. McMains on a well written book….I am looking forward to the sequel.

By VarangianGuard, Amazon.com

No, “Techno Thriller” isn’t the only category in which you can file Josh McMains’ novel Uncubicled, but it’s fairly accurate. The initial information I first received lead me to believe it would be more focused on the Office Worker life. It’s true that it starts off that way, and, for me, it was the the initial hook that helped me relate to the characters and situations. From there, though, it became a wild ride of plot twists, high-tech espionage, and enough edge-of-your-seat storylines to keep you saying “Ok, one more chapter, THEN I’ll go to sleep.”

For a debut novel, I’ve gotta say that this is one of the best I’ve read in a long time. There is a fantastic balance of dialogue mixed with rich and description from the third-person narrative. On it’s surface, you easily become invested in the characters and there is enough action to keep even the most casual reader interested. Dig deeper, though, and you’ll really uncover some fantastic and complex twists, turns, and cloak and dagger situations.

Did you ever watch the movie The Usual Suspects — and at the end thing “Holy Crap! That’s awesome — now I have to rewind the movie and watch it again!” That’s very much how I felt after reading Uncubicled.

If you’re Dilbert-style Cube Dweller, and you’re hoping that there is something greater going on, you just may be right. Let’s just remain happy that this is a book of fiction…or is it? Let’s hope so.

By Adam Lawson, Amazon.com

 

www.uncubicled.com

Dr. Jim Sagacity is a Marriage and Family Therapist that has the special ability to see deep inside other people. He can see their souls. He volunteers at a Philadelphia hospital in order to be as close to death as possible, for during most fatalities, he watches the spirit of the recently deceased depart this world in a display of pure joyous wonder. Throughout his life, he celebrates his ability in secret, focusing on the sheer elation of these transitions, until one day he is shown that not all souls are willing or able to take that all important step to the next realm. Weaker souls, small and dim to Jim’s eyes, face a darker fate.

With a new understanding of what death might mean, Dr. Sagacity joins a group of other specially gifted people in hopes of assisting those spirits he believes lack the strength to move on to a new existence. Pooling their incredible and supernatural talents, they pinpoint those individuals that are facing death in the very near future. Jim Sagacity experiences the complexities of working with others focused beyond the constraints of this physical realm, but within a society attentive to the normal realities of death, despair and even murder. He finds that not everyone shares his views, that the truth can often be distorted, and that the world he lives in can be a very difficult and dangerous place.

A series of unexplained deaths shatters the serenity of a Vancouver Island girls’ school, and Tempest Ivory, child psychologist and soprano, races to solve the mystery before it claims more lives. Tempest lands a coveted lead role in Rigoletto, but as she prepares for her operatic debut, the explosive secrets lurking behind the academy walls set her on a collision course with her past.

“…draws you in compellingly from the opening page…a gripping story of death and family secrets…The characters are quirky and sympathetic.” — The Paper Chase

“…a harrowing tale of blasphemy, insanity, suicide and murder.” — Snoop Sisters Mystery Bookshoppe

“…if you enjoy psychological, twist a minute books, A Hemorrhaging of Souls is definitely for you.” — I Love A Mystery

A Hemorrhaging of Souls - trailer

For more info: please visit Nicola Furlong’s website

Buy the e-book at: iTunes

A popular singer finds himself in a hazy netherworld following an accident he can’t even recall. In state of forced solitude with no day or night, David Perrin’s mission is to find out what happened to him and where he went wrong in life. Along his journey, David revisits the pivotal moments of his rise to fame and is cuided by a strange angel that bears an uncanny resemblance to his music idol, laynestaley. David wants to redeem himself for his wasted life, but he must first resolve whether he’s alive or dead.

Bob Stark returns to Denver after 18 years in Southeast Asia to discover that the mother he buried before he left is dead again. At her second funeral, he sees . . . himself. Is his other self a hoaxer? A doppelganger? Or is something more sinister going on? Even worse, two men who appear to be government agents are hunting him for no reason he can fathom. With the help of Kerry Casillas, a baffling young woman Bob meets in a coffee shop, he uncovers the unimaginable truth.

“I love the story of More Deaths Than One. Pat Bertram blends mystery/suspense with history very well. Her characters are strong, and I love the slow reveal of who Bob really was/is. The hints and clues Bertram drops come together for me with the jungle nightmares. The descriptions of the places Bob and Kerry visit are exquisitely done; the places sound real. I enjoyed this story very much.”

–Rachael Wollet, freelance editor.

“In More Deaths Than One, Bertram created two characters I’m ready to watch take off. The combination of Bob and the waitress is great–she’s obviously the one person he’s letting pull him out of whatever shell he’s been in. Bertram raises so many interesting questions in her initial chapter that it definitely compels me to want to read more. Why is Bob in Denver, and where has he been? Is this a story of time-shifting madness, or what? Why are the police at the funeral? And on and on! Bertram’s writing is also well-crafted and flows so well. The dialog is a strong suit.”

– Ann Barks, fellow FCC contestant.

A neighborhood bookie peddles athletes to college coaches and develops a sport betting operation centered on high school games. He recruits an accomplice to execute his last bet, one that could set them up financially for life but is fraught with danger. The Chicago Police investigate the greedy gamblers who might try to manipulate a high school basketball playoff game. A chance meeting between the father of a mediocre student-athlete and the bookie puts in motion a sequence of events transforming the player into a Division 1 prospect using unorthodox basketball training methods. Corrupt adults, who selfishly engage in risky and exploitive behaviors, surround the athlete: gangland profiteers, win-at-all-cost coaches, greedy street agents, shoe company representatives, college recruiters, disloyal lovers, and others. Advantage Disadvantage examines the motivations that drive the surrounding adults to corruption, betrayal, and greed.

Advantage / Disadvantage is a cleverly interwoven tale of High School athletes who are unwittingly taken in by the sleezy characters that cling to the periphery of organized sports, and profit from them by means of greed and deception.

This book was eye - opening and shocking, and at other times touching and surprising - but never was it boring. The characters inspired hope as well as loathing, and made me think that High School athletics might not be as simple and innocent as we are led to believe. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down. I can’t wait for the sequel. Well done, Mr. Jaffe!

David Shapiro, Amazon.com

Barracuda is a fast-paced story where international intrigue, environmental catastrophe, and cultural pride collide. Even on vacation, recuperating NYPD cop Mick O’Shaughnessy is still a detective at heart. When the Russian Mafia and Japanese Yakuza rock the island paradise of Bikini Atoll over an international money laundering scheme and a territorial war, O’Shaughnessy refuses to fly away from the chaos until safety and justice prevail. But when a mutant barracuda begins snacking on the tourists, Mick really has his hands full. Written in whip-smart prose, Barracuda is a power-packed, wildly entertaining adventure; truly the catch of the day!

The historical significance of Bikini Atoll and the underwater depictions in Barracuda are well researched, incorporating the history of Pacific A-Bomb testing following World War II. Monahan expertly incorporates authentic scuba-diving knowledge and proper police procedures into the plot, characters, and scenic detail. Readers who appreciate the aquatic action of JAWS, the mob intrigue of The Godfather, and the police procedural sense of The Onion Field, will enjoy Barracuda.

“Take the bait! Read this book! You’ll be hooked!”
You don’t need to be a police officer, a scuba diver expert or a fisherman to enjoy this one, folks. It doesn’t matter if you are male or female. What you do need is to set aside your time, have your meals for the day already prepared and find a comfortable seat. Let the answering machine answer your calls.

Mike Monahan brings us from New York to an island on the South Pacific, filled with history, conspiracies, money laundering, greed, danger and a very big fish with an even bigger attitude.

There really isn’t much more that I can say on this one. “Barracuda” hooked me from the start and just never let go. I highly recommend it. Hook, line and sinker. Case closed.

– J.R. Readron, November 13, 2008

It’s 1999, the year we were supposed to party, but for Brad Wilson it brings the ultimate dare.  The million-dollar offer comes through Mitch, his band’s ex-manager, who 30 years ago ripped them off and vanished.  Now, he shows up with fifty thousand in crisp, new bills and the promise of more— much more.  

The offer comes from a wealthy eccentric, Pablo Lupa, who is a fan of Brad’s 70’s band, and has offered the members one million dollars each to reunite and play for him at his South American ranch.  Will Brad and his band make it home with their bounty, or will they fall prey to a wealth-emboldened trickster and his deadly perversions?  Smoking Jimi is a road story like no other— a triumphant, euphoric journey that somehow morphs into a headlong dash for survival.

Mitch flinched as thunder cracked. “Well, you know how those record companies are— you got yer expenses, yer advances, yer this and yer that, but hey, we’re talkin’ peanuts compared to what we’re gonna make off this one gig. Think of it, man— fly to South America, jam for this cat, and bingo, it’s the 70’s again. Only this time, we’re instant millionaires. All of us.”

“We’re short one keyboard player.”

“So? You still play guitar, don’t you?”

I hesitated.

“You were the best. Jimi Hendrix asked about you once. Said you were hot.”

“C’mon, Mitch, Hendrix was dead way before we got to Hollywood.”

“Well, must have been Clapton or one of those cats. You know how I am with names, right?”

Although I knew Mitch was lying, how I wished Jimi Hendrix would have noticed me. When I was still a teenaged, three-chord-playing, growing-his-hair-long, punk-assed wannabe, I saw Hendrix perform in San Francisco. I couldn’t believe anyone could do that with a guitar! It was as if a musical god had descended to earth to show us mortals what could be— if only . . . .

– excerpt

Author website

What happens when two professional assassins - one a Mafia hitman and the other a former German terrorist - kill at exactly the same moment in time? For Ernst Stahl and Frank Jolino the result is a psychic bond that slowly blossoms in each man’s mind, enabling them to see into the other’s world. Frank Jolino doesn’t like what he sees, especially when he realizes that Stahl is headed to his home turf of Boston to kill a scientist who may hold the key to solving the world’s deadliest diseases. But for Stahl, there’s no other option. Virtually bankrupt and with his son in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant, he’s got little choice but to take the assignment. Jolino has other ideas. On the run from his crime syndicate for refusing to kill his ex-girlfriend-turned-government-informant, Jolino sets a plan in motion that will bring the two men face-to-face and gun-to-gun…with no guarantees either will survive.

Jon F. Merz is the author of over a dozen books including the Lawson Vampire series published by Pinnacle Books in 2002-2003 and (one of the writers on) the internationally bestselling Rogue Angel adventure series as well as several standalone thrillers and two non-fiction books.