The Garbage Brothers is a both poignant and comical coming-of-age story set in Chicago in the summer of 1969. Eighteen-year-old Jesse Wheeler's comfortable suburban existence crumbles after his father dies, leaving his naive son adrift and without prospects. After graduating (barely) from high school, Jesse finds a summer job humping garbage for Willard Sanitation Service with a crew of felons - Pickles, Zeus, Grits and their foreman Billy Bart-in the flyspeck town of Freedom. A coworker introduces Jesse to his niece, a plain-speaking young woman named Iris who reshapes Jesse's universe. Jesse's ability to survive the punishing lessons inflicted by his co-workers while winning their grudging respect and friendship fills this gritty coming-of-age story with warmth, laughter and heartache.
When a dead guy falls off a train just yards from Yorktown, a hobo camp near West Wheaton, California, all manner of forces begin to collide.Three men live in Yorktown: York, the old blind hobo and self-proclaimed mayor and minister of his little enclave, Denny, the young rail rider, and Sly, the damaged Vietnam vet. When they are blamed for the murder, the town fathers are ready to bulldoze the camp that has existed there for forty years or more.Clover, the girl who works at the donut shop and keeps the bums in day-old and toothpaste as her personal ministry, determines to save the camp and the harmless guys who live out in the open. She has the compassionate ear of the sheriff, but his deputy is a hothead, and in the pocket of the mayor who has shady business dealings he needs to have accomplished under dark of night. When Clover and her boys discover who really killed the guy on the train, tensions ratchet up and a van full of thugs are hired to go clean up the hobo camp by the light of the full moon, but blind old York and his two inept sidekicks are ready for them in as unconventional a defensive posture as possible. Eventually, everyone knows it's the end of the era when rail riders can live out their freedoms, and the inevitable is going to happen, but before it does, those who wield unreasonable power must have their comeuppance, and those who have been doing good works all their lives must be rewarded.York's Moon is an unconventional murder mystery, a story of love, hope, and how the little guy can fight city hall and win. Sort of.
Veteran author Elizabeth Engstrom dives into the horrific stories of seven serial killers, along with a glimpse into the maggoty world of forensic entomology. Why do these killers do what they do, how do they get away with it for so long, and what is their final undoing? Riveting true crime stories to make you lock your doors at night.
Two novels-The Assassin's Coin, by John Linwood Grant, and The Prostitute's Price by Alan M. Clark. Intertwined here, they share a single timeline and a single purpose - to lead you to 13 Miller's Court, the room made infamous during the Autumn of Terror. The Prostitute's Price-A novel that beats back our assumptions about the time of Jack the Ripper. Not the grim story of an unfortunate drunken prostitute killed before her time, but one of a young Mary Jane Kelly, alive with all the emotional complexity of women today. Running from a man wanting her to pay for her crimes against his brother, she must recover a valuable hidden necklace and sell it to gain the funds to leave London and start over elsewhere. Driven by powerful, if at times conflicting emotion, she runs the dystopian labyrinth of the East End, and tries to sneak past the deadly menace that bars her exit.The Assassin's Coin-She is Catherine Weatherhead, and she is Madame Rostov. She will lie. She will deceive. She will change history, for she is haunted, and murder speaks to her. In Whitechapel, all talk is of the one they call Jack the Ripper, but there is another killer in play, Mr Edwin Dry, the Deptford Assassin. The truth is not what you believe. It is what Catherine and Mr Dry make it.
Carjacked at gunpoint by a young female desperado, middle-aged Darlene Martin drives the girl far away from civilization to a place unlike anything in Darlene''s experience. The girl and her lover take Darlene''s car and leave her in the remote cabin with a very unusual man, also unlike anything in Darlene''s experience.
A novel that beats back our assumptions about the time of Jack the Ripper. Not the grim story of an unfortunate drunken prostitute killed before her time, but one of a young woman alive with all the emotional complexity of women today. Running from a man wanting her to pay for her crimes against his brother, Mary Jane Kelly must recover a valuable hidden necklace and sell it to gain the funds to leave London and start over elsewhere. Driven by powerful, if at times conflicting emotion, she runs the dystopian labyrinth of the East End, and tries to sneak past the deadly menace that bars her exit.
She is Catherine Weatherhead, and she is Madame Rostov. She will lie, though not with malice. She will deceive, though often with good cause. And she will change the course of history, for murder speaks to her. In Whitechapel, all talk is of Jack the Ripper, but there is another killer in play, and he most definitely has a name. Mr Edwin Dry, the Deptford Assassin. The truth is not what you believe. It is what he makes it.
A collection of other-worldly stories that paint an unusual picture of the unsettling lives in a fictional community where the uncanny is commonplace.
Peter and Tess, damaged by their encounters with family and love, meet in a bar and go back to his place for the night. There, they discover the freedom of unconditional love and acceptance and retreat from the world. Eventually, their experiment takes a dark turn. A dark, disturbing novel of love and obsession by veteran author Elizabeth Engstrom.
Annie Chapman led a hard, lower class life in filthy 19th century London. Late in life, circumstances and and her choices led her to earn her crust by solicitation. After a bruising brawl with another woman over money and a man, she lost her lodgings and found herself sleeping rough. That dangerous turn of events delivered her into the hands of London's most notorious serial killer, Jack the Ripper.Contrasting her last week alive with the experiences of her earlier life, the author helps readers understand how she might have made the decisions that put her in the wrong place at the wrong time.
An imaginative reconstruction of the life of Elizabeth Stride, the third victim of Jack the Ripper. The beast of poverty and disease had stalked Elizabeth all her life, waiting for the right moment to take her down. To survive, she listened to the two extremes within herself-Bess, the innocent child of hope, and Liza, the cynical, hardbitten opportunist. While Bess paints rosy pictures of what lies ahead and Liza warns of dangers everywhere, the beast, in the guise of a man offering something better, circles ever closer.
Angie Smith and Curtis Loew are having dreams they can't shake. At the heart of each is Angie's daughter, Kaya. Angie's dreams end in death, the spreading of hand-shaped bruises across her daughter's throat. Curtis' dreams end in something else, something closer to obsession than love. Angie is worlds away, trying to keep her drug-shattered mind from falling apart, traveling through an American underbelly filled with inhuman shapes, dark whispers and old friends with empty eyes. Curtis is Kaya's new neighbor. He's getting closer to her, and her mentally unstable grandmother, Colleen. He's had families before, but he'd always made mistakes. Mistakes that led to new names, new towns. But this one time, he swears, things will all work out. He's got so much love to give.
How's a girl supposed to break a curse she doesn't know was placed on her in a past life? Bull's Labyrinth is the story of a love that survives three thousand years, an ancient Minoan curse, and modern corruption. In ancient Minoan Crete, Daedalus fell in love with a herding girl named Nikkis. Yes, that Daedalus-the master mason who built the great Palace of Knossos on the island of Crete, who is said to have built the false cow in which the Minotaur was conceived, who is said to have constructed the labyrinth, who built working wings that lead to the death of his own son. Nikkis's love, intelligence, integrity, and irrepressible determination survive three thousand years of cursed existence into the present day. In modern Crete, her work as a researcher in ancient languages takes her to Greece. There, she her own fears and a curse she can't begin to understand. Only finding Daedalus, breaking their curse, and triumphing over corruption and international artifact smugglers will free them both from a cycle of pain and suffering set in motion by a corrupt king three thousand years ago. Early Praise for Bull's Labyrinth: "Look, I could explain why in detail, but let's skip that, and get right down to the real nitty-gritty: Eric Witchey's fantasy novel, Bull's Labyrinth, is a terrific book. Buy it, read it, enjoy it. You can thank me later." -New York Times Bestselling Author Steve Perry, Shadows of the Empire "Bull's Labyrinth is an extraordinary work, seamlessly blending myth and magic with ancient and modern times. It is a love story and an adventure story that spans generations and cultures, and explores the possibilities of fates come to fruition outside the constraints of time. Exquisitely researched and rich with atmospheric detail. Witchey has written an unputdownable tale. Highest recommendations." -Elizabeth Engstrom, author of Lizzie Borden, Candyland, and Baggage Check "The warp and weft of the tale Eric Witchey has woven in Bull's Labyrinth, set half in the present and half in ancient times, creates powerful, recurring intersections of the emotional themes of romance, and renders what is literally a distant classical tale into one compelling to present-day audiences. The struggle across time of two lovers against a curse meant to deny their passion carries readers through a mysterious tale of history, ancient magic, yearning, and hope, as well as modern love and desire." -Alan M. Clark, author of The Surgeon's Mate: A Dismemoir and A Brutal Chill in August.
"Ingredients: 25 tales of science, magic, strangeness, wonder, and mystery."
Three college girls go looking for excitement in a cowboy bar. After their car breaks down, they enter a campground closed for the winter where three older guys are drinking in their car. The events which transpire on this endless night of truth and terror leave three people dead and four people with lives that will never be the same.
A hundred years ago, a young woman stood accused of brutally murdering her father and stepmother in a crime so heinous that it became a benchmark in human tragedy. A hundred years later, the Lizzie Borden case still resounds in the imagination. A stunning work by veteran author Elizabeth Engstrom.
The story in The Door that Faced West is a little known piece of history that takes place in the American South as the 18th century ends and the 19th century begins. At the time, the western frontier still occupied territory east of the Mississippi. The novel is based on actual events involving the early American serial killers, the Harpe brothers, Wiley and Micajah. The Harpes are often considered America's first serial killers. They were land pirates who prowled the wilderness of Tennessee and Kentucky looking for victims.Although a character-driven fiction novel, it is also something of a true crime book. The story is an Early Western, distinguish from traditional westerns by the technology of the period. At the time, firearms were single shot weapons and hand-to-hand combat was much more common.The story unfolding from the point of view of the brothers' third wife, Sadie Rice, the 16 year old daughter of a minister, it provides some education about the limitations of women's rights of the time. As Sadie endures life on the trail in their company, she benefits from the Harpes' ability to defend their own with extreme violence. The deeper into the savage wilderness they travel, the more dependent upon the brothers she becomes. Too late, she realizes that their capacity for violence is, in truth, a ravenous hunger.
Inspired by the true crimes of the Wardlaw sisters. In A Parliament of Crows, the three Mortlow sisters are prominent American educators of the nineteenth century, considered authorities in teaching social graces to young women. They also pursue a career of fraud and murder. Their loyalty to one another and their need to keep their secrets is a bond that tightens with each crime, forcing them closer together and isolating them from the outside world. Their ever tightening triangle suffers from madness, religious zealotry, and a sense of duty warped by trauma they experienced as teenagers in Georgia during Sherman's March to the Sea. As their crimes come back to haunt them and a long history of resentments toward each other boils to the surface, their bond of loyalty begins to fray. Will duty to family hold or will they turn on each other like ravening crows?
In Victorian London, the greatest city of the richest country in the world, the industrial revolution has created a world of decadence and prosperity, but also one of unimaginable squalor and suffering. Human degradation, filth, rats, parasites, danger, sorrow, and death are ever-present in its streets. Catherine Eddowes is found murdered gruesomely in the city's East End. The possessions, including clothes-over fifty personal items-carried on her person are listed in the police reports of the crime. Wearing several layers of clothing and having stayed the two night prior to the one of her death in the workhouse casual ward (homeless shelter), the possessions may have been everything she owned in the world. In OF THIMBLE AND THREAT, Alan M. Clark tells the heartbreaking story of Catherine Eddowes, the fourth victim of Jack the Ripper, explaining the origin and acquisition of the items found with her at the time of her death, chronicling her life from childhood to adulthood, motherhood, her descent into alcoholism, and finally her death. OF THIMBLE AND THREAT is a story of the intense love between a mother and a child, a story of poverty and loss, fierce independence, and unconquerable will. It is the devastating portrayal of a self-perpetuated descent into Hell, a lucid view into the darkest parts of the human heart.
In this gritty, hard-hitting story, a young mom gets caught up in a complex web of drug smuggling and money laundering, unwittingly putting her son's life at risk. She bravely and courageously faces down the bad guys and finds love in an unexpected place with an unlikely partner. A riveting, fast-paced thriller expertly told by veteran storyteller Elizabeth Engstrom.
Good sex scenes are a must in today's novel, and they don't just happen on their own. There is a structure, a method, and boundaries to be drawn. Whether you want to write for publication or your own enjoyment, whether you want to write sizzling sex scenes for your novel or erotic short stories, you'll find the tools here. This book is about recognizing the sensuality of our bodies, our minds, our lovers, our environment. Based on years of erotic weekends and riotous conference presentations, veteran author Elizabeth Engstrom presents in this book an awakening jolt for the senses. It is about recognizing and expressing the things that make us feel good about ourselves. It is about describing the indescribable. It is about writing.
A story that illuminates the dark corners of creative endeavor in which inspiration, no longer an elusive, spritely muse, turns deadly and begins stalking the artist.In this gritty, poignant novel, the life of an alcoholic artist and author, Aiden, collides headlong with that of a serial murderer. The artist fights a serious brain infection and struggles to hide his addictions, while holding his family together. The wall between reality and imagination comes crashing down when psychopathic Frederick invades Aiden's life, with a horrific lust for violence against young women. The artist's world careens out of control toward pure terror.
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