MY BOOKS

My Books

Will You Please Shut Up

This book of short stories, poems, and essays is intended as an easy read, something you

might pick up while you’re waiting in the dentist's office or on a long airplane flight. The stories

are fun: a little boy hoping to swap his pet turtle for a grandfather, a grandfather whose

grandchild mimics every word her grandpa says, even the ones she shouldn’t say. There are

mother-daughter, and father-daughter stories, poems about sleeplessness, and a dinner guest

who won’t stop talking. There’s a story about a woman being haunted by the ghost of her ex-

husband and a wife plotting her husband’s murder. There’s a story about Howdy Doody’s wife

(you didn’t know he was married, did you?) and numerous other tales, some funny, some sad,

some just weird. Hope you enjoy the read.

The Whistleblower

On a summer night, Emily MacIntire, a recent widow, finds six year old Fritz Jergen, sleeping in a lean-to on her property. Fritz is a stranger, but he tells Emily that his mother, Nancy, is gone, and before she left she told him to go to Emily's house. Where has Nancy Jergen gone, and why would she send her son to a stranger?

The answer comes when Emily is cleaning out her late husband Frank's desk and finds a letter admitting his affair with Nancy Jergen and acknowledging Fritz as his son. With Nancy still missing, Emily decides to raise Fritz as her own.

But what has happened to Nancy?

In part II we meet Nancy Jergen as she is trying to blow the whistle on illegal activities in her bank. But being a whistleblower is a dangerous game, and Nancy will pay for her curiosity with her life.

When Nancy's body is discovered, it is up to detective Chris Bellini (Take My Hand) to search for her killer. But the killer, who is still in the area, is dangerous enough not just to kill Nancy, but to kill her son, and to threaten Chris and his family.

The Blackbird

In 1878, Detective Sinclair Davies is traveling west following the trail of a murderer. Can he find the answers before he becomes the next victim?

Thirteen years after the end of the Civil War, detective Sinclair Davies, a Civil War veteran, is investigating the death of an Indian in the small town of Hayes, New York.

Who was the Indian, and why was he in Hayes? As Sinclair begins his investigation he realizes that not all the answers are in the place where the Indian was killed. Some of them lie where the man came from: the Mohave Reservation in southern California.

Traveling west to find answers, Sinclair is joined by Maggie Cochran, a young woman determined to make a name for herself as a reporter by writing an article on Women of the West for a local magazine.

But traveling west is not easy. Someone is out to see that Sinclair does not find the murderer. First, he is almost killed on the train, and then he is kidnapped and tortured by Indians. Maggie too, is kidnapped and sold into prostitution before she makes her escape. Will Sinclair find the killer and Maggie get her story, before they too become victims?

The Lies That He Told

He is tall, dark and handsome, and she is falling for him, but every word he tells her is a lie.When Kiki Coleman meets Nathan Marks, she is skinny-dipping in her outdoor pool and he has run out of gas for his car. But the tale he tells her about himself is untrue and as she gets to know him, she realizes that his stories are often lies. A month after meeting Nate, Kiki’s mother and stepfather leave for Paris, and never return. And, on the same day her parents disappear Nate Marks departs without a trace. Was the man she was attracted to, part of a scheme to murder and deceive, and if she follows her heart and tries to find him will she become one of his victims?

The Life That He Lived

A story of two men, Henry Bower who escaped from Auschwitz when he was a child and his grandson, Jason who has come to the farm to write his grandfather's story. But things do not go well for the two. Henry gets into a fight with a local man and when the man is found dead, Henry admits to the murder. Jason thinks he is innocent, but proving it, is more difficult than Jason imagines. As he starts to investigate Jason learns that the murdered man had plenty of enemies, but Henry has drugs on hand that could have been used to kill. Is Henry guilty or innocent? As Jason probes further, he uncovers a tangled web that may ultimately put him in a killer's line of sight.

The Shelter Of Darkness

The year is l945 and John Winthrop, a man with leprosy, has fled to northern New York with his stepdaughter Jenny. Into John and Jenny's life comes a young woman, Annie Conroy who is pregnant and running from her abusive husband Al. John decides to give her shelter. On the day Annie is due to have her baby. Al Conroy shows up demanding that Annie return with him. John threatens Al with a shotgun and rescues Annie. After John returns to his farm, he discovers the body of Al Conroy behind his barn. Al has been shot with John's gun. Now John has to prove his innocence when every bit of evidence points to him as the killer, and the real killer is out there, still looking for blood.

A Casualty Of Hope

Bernie Robertson has a recurring nightmare of being pursued by a killer through a snowy desert. This could be the response to the stress of divorcing her abusive husband, or it could be the memory of an actual event. When Bernie's husband is arrested, Bernie makes the decision to move to Texas, where she was adopted, hoping to find her birth mother. But the move plunges her into a terrifying situation, where the event she is struggling to remember might be the thing that puts her life, and the life of her daughter in grave danger.

Take My Hand: A Novel

The cold case of a murdered boy named Ethan LeBrun is the last thing Detective Chris Bellini wants on his watch. It’s far too close to home, where he’s raising a granddaughter of about the same age. However, his discomfort with the case amps up to sheer terror when he places himself and his young girl in danger of being the killer’s next victims. Can he solve the case before the craven predator strikes again?

Take My Hand: A Novel is the new murder mystery by that follows a seasoned detective on the hunt for a murderer who has masterfully eluded apprehension for years. When Lorna Watson, a teacher at a medium-security prison, discovers new information about the puzzling kidnapping and killing of Ethan, she shares it with the detective. Soon thereafter, her husband, who is struggling with Alzheimer’s disease, vanishes from his nursing home. Could his disappearance be connected with Lorna’s newfound knowledge of sinister old deeds?

The Girl In The Woods

Drew Morgan goes for a walk in the woods and becomes lost. For days she wanders around, starving and suffering from an infected wound. In that time, she sees the ghost of a young woman. When she is finally rescued, she and some friends with search dogs, find the murdered girl. Now, against the advice of her forest-ranger lover, Drew sets out to find the murderer, who is still willing to kill to keep his secret safe.