Gumdrop City is a True Crime short story that has been fictionalized, mostly the story about the protagonist. More or less how the end scene comes to be, is true, although in reality the police were involved. The "room" is true though the rest of the house was fictionalized. This is one of my cover artist's favorite of all of my stories. This story is also included in, Anthology of Evil.

Includes a new, previously unpublished short story — "A Very Bad Day in Hell" Hell is a city. Forget the old-fashioned sulphurous pit you may have read about. Over the millennia, Hell has evolved into a bustling metropolis with looming skyscrapers, crowded streets, systemized evil, and atrocity as the status quo. Cassie thought she knew all about Hell. But when her twin sister, Lissa, committed suicide, Cassie found that she was able to travel to the real thing—the city itself. Now, even though she's still alive, Cassie is heading straight to Hell to find Lissa. And the sights she sees as she walks among the damned will never be in any tourist guidebook.

A short story based on the Biblical tale of Abraham and his son Isaac, Japheth loves his son Isaac. Along with Ishvi's siblings, they live in a religious commune known as, "The Light". Life is good. They have land, and love, Community. Until the Zombie Apocalypse burns into the ground as terrifying pillars from the skies and throws in some devastating confusion. Add in a splitting migraine, few special Decon soldiers, God himself and well, there you pretty much have it. All the good ingredients needed for a very real nightmare.

“[An] amazing thriller . . . [Richard] Hawke’s dialogue is sharp and snappy and the plot moves with all the energy of New York City.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer A child of Hell’s Kitchen and the bastard son of a beloved former police commissioner, Fritz Malone is all too familiar with New York City’s rougher side. So when a gunman opens fire at the crowded Thanksgiving Day parade, Fritz steps into action, giving chase. He then learns that someone dubbed “Nightmare” has been taunting the city’s leaders for weeks—and there’s more carnage to come, unless the city meets the madman’s impossible demands. The nervous police need an outside man, and Fritz fits the bill. Racing furiously against time, Fritz finds himself confounded by Nightmare’s multiple masks and messengers. But the dark story behind the story soon begins to emerge, and when Fritz zeroes in on the terrible truth, the killer retaliates by making things personal. Now Fritz must grapple with his deepest fear: Sometimes nightmares really do come true. Praise for Speak of the Devil “Hawke razzle-dazzles us with . . . bada-bing narration and quirky, well-drawn characters.”—The Boston Globe “[Packed] with a breathless pace and hairpin turns.”—South Florida Sun Sentinel “Fast-moving, first-rate . . . Hawke’s plot grabs us by the throat. . . . He keeps the suspense mounting.”—The Washington Post Book World “Solidly entertaining . . . Hawke makes a big splash on the thriller scene with his debut novel.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer “[Speak of the Devil] tours the city with unusual streetwise panache . . . but this isn’t a book that coasts on its urban geography. It lives by its wits, and its wits would work anywhere.”—The New York Times “A bang-bang thriller . . . We are absolutely powerless to stop reading.”—Chicago Tribune “[A] deftly paced debut that crackles and pops from page 1.”—Booklist (starred review) “Thrill-a-minute pacing and inspired plot twists.”—Newsday “A rare combination of intrigue and intensity.”—Michael Connelly

While cupcake food truck owner Isabel Addington is baking up sweets, everyone around her seems to be cooking up murder. Isabel and her business partner Claire are working out of a borrowed truck that’s too small for them, but they couldn’t miss the opportunity to sell their cupcakes at the annual hot air balloon festival. It’s the break they need to expand the business. But the day goes from bad to worse to murder when a man plummets to his death from one of the hot air balloons. The operator swears the man jumped out on his own. The man’s family insists he wouldn’t have killed himself. Isabel finds herself in the middle of the investigation again, but more is at stake than she realized. Especially when someone delivers a threat into the hands of one of the people Isabel loves the most. If you love cozy mysteries with found family, amateur sleuths, and food, then you'll love this sweet cozy mystery. Gum Drop Dead is the third book in Emily James’ Cupcake Truck Mysteries. Cupcake recipe included!

This is the haunting and exquisitely crafted mystery of Eddie Conroy, a brilliant but homeless middle-aged man living in New York.. Working as a dishwasher after a long military career, Conroy suffers from a multiple-personality disorder that has no known cure, alternating from the defensive posture of a street-smart functional illiterate to the highly visible stature of an animal-rights advocate. When a 500-pound male Bengal tiger escapes from the Central Park Zoo during an animal-rights demonstration, Conroy's close friend is brutally killed by the animal. A logistical nightmare develops for the police, who must take the unprecedented step of closing the park to all pedestrian and vehicular traffic until the tiger is captured or killed. After several days and nights of intense searching by police officers, the hungry and disoriented animal is spooked by gunfire. And virtually all attempts at control and protection are lost. Throughout the upper East Side, a panic ensues, exacerbated by sensation-seeking media coverage. Mr. Minahan draws indelible and thought-provoking parallel lines between the instinctive actions of the tiger and the intuitive insights of Eddie Conroy, linking their lives in a compelling metaphysical alliance that is difficult to forget.