“Rarely is an author so skilled at portraying such unremitting evil and the poignant, human side of his characters in a single tale.” — Jeffery Deaver
“Jacob Stone is equal parts Thomas Harris, Michael Connelly, Jo Nesbo, and Stephen King. CRUEL will leave you shaking . . . with fear, excitement, and the uncontrollable compulsion to keep on reading.” — Lee Goldberg, #1 New York Times bestselling author of True Fiction
“17.” L.A. detective Morris Brick knows the number all too well. It was the gruesome signature the Nightmare Man left next to his victims’ bodies. Brick’s father was the first to investigate the killings. Five women were butchered before the perpetrator vanished. Seventeen years later he resurfaced—to kill again in the same depraved ways. Now another seventeen years have passed. Brick knows in his gut that it’s time for the Nightmare Man to reawaken. But even Brick can’t imagine the madman’s true agenda. Or just how terrifying the sleepless nights are going to get in the City of Angels . . .
Jacob Stone is the pseudonym for award-winning author Dave Zeltserman. Dave’s crime and horror novels have been picked by NPR, the Washington Post, American Library Association, Booklist, and WBUR as best novels of the year, and his short mystery fiction has won a Shamus, Derringer and two Ellery Queen Readers Choice awards.
Dave’s crime noir novel, SMALL CRIMES, has been made into a major motion picture starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Molly Parker, Gary Cole, Robert Forster, and Jacki Weaver, and will be premiering April 28th on Netflix. Several of his other books are currently in film development.
Morris Brick thriller novels written as Jacob Stone: DERANGED, CRAZED, MALICIOUS, TWISTED.
Readers’ Favorite is proud to announce that “When a Stranger Comes…” by Karen S. Bell won the Bronze Medal in the Fiction – Thriller – Psychological category
A GRIPPING PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER FOR FANS OF KING AND KOONTZ!
Would you be willing to make a deal with the devil to have your hopes and dreams come true?
Witnessing a lightening bolt on a sunny day, author Alexa Wainwright doesn’t realize she’s been transported to an alternate universe. Here, she meets media mogul and publisher King Blakemore who offers her a lucrative book contract that will guarantee her comeback.
This publisher seems odd. This book deal is too good. Suddenly, the contract’s been signed. Now what can she do?
Desperate to get her life back, Alexa devises schemes to untether herself from this hellish existence but to no avail. Can Alexa find her way out of this nightmare?
Buy this book if you’re a reader who loves a page-turning, heart-stopping, psychological thriller with some magical realism thrown in.
I get so much satisfaction in the writing process. I take care to choose just the right word, to make sure each sentence has the right cadence. I appreciate other writers who respect the craft in this way, and I hope my readers do so with me. Writing is a need, a desire for expression, and springs from well within my subconscious mind. Thoughts rise up, scenes rise up and blend in with the over-arching story. These thoughts emerge whenever they want to and wherever I am and probably not when I am at the computer. The computer is for the craft, the technique. The thoughts come during walks, or while driving the car, or at the grocery store. I am the willing recipient of these thoughts and so they seek me out. It’s a mystery this business and art of writing and it keeps me enthralled.
Inexplicable drops in world markets for oil, copper, coal, and other commodities are destabilizing nations to the point of economic collapse. A conspicuous increase in production numbers for primary oil producing companies results in a call for help from governments and a large oil distributor. The R-Group quietly engages amid fears that further drops in value could devastate civilization.
Jacob Michaels is called directly by ePetro’s Mike Patrick, CEO of the multinational oil broker, due to some prior data and network security he had performed. The early investigation into the production number manipulation by Jacob, with his coworker and lover, Petra, suggests the problem is a result of hacking by a Dark Matter Organization. Where is the DMO operating, who is at the helm driving commodity prices down, and how does the search evolve into a perilous hunt which puts Jacob, Petra, and other members of R-Group directly into the path of mortal danger!?
Hidden leadership of the DMO is fierce and lethal when it comes to protecting the organization and its plans of global commodities market control. The enforcers of this agenda are quick to execute orders without question as soon as they are issued. R-Group’s advantage of leading technology resources, brilliant technologists, and years of experience may not be enough to locate the genius source bent on commodity market domination. Has cyber good versus evil from the dark net become a challenge they simply cannot win?
The Enigma Broker, by Breakfield and Burkey, the award-winning authors of The Enigma Series, takes readers on a journey from the affluence of London to the extreme poverty of Panama and everywhere in between. The layers of planning and conspiracy by the cruel DMO supply suspense and intrigue to the very end.
Breakfield and Burkey started writing non-fictional papers and books, but it wasn’t nearly as fun as writing fictional stories. They found it interesting to use the aspects of technology that people are incorporating into their daily lives more and more as a perfect way to create a good guy/bad guy story with elements of travel to the various places they have visited, either professionally and personally, humor, romance, intrigue, suspense, and a spirited way to remember people who have crossed paths with them. They love to talk about their stories with private and public book readings. Burkey is also conducting regular radio interviews with other authors, which is interesting. Her first interview was, wait for it, Breakfield. You can often find them at local book fairs or other family oriented events.
The original series is based on a family organization called R-Group. Recently they have spawned a subgroup that contains some of the original characters as the Cyber Assassins Technology Services (CATS) team. The authors have ideas for continuing the series in both of these tracks. They track the more than 150 characters on a spreadsheet, with a hidden avenue for the future coined The Enigma Chronicles tagged in some portions of the stories. Fan reviews seem to frequently suggest that these would make good television or movie stories, so the possibilities appear endless, just like their ideas for new stories.
They have completed book video trailers for each of the stories, which can be viewed on YouTube, Amazon’s Authors page, or on their website, enigmabookseries.com. Their website is routinely updated with new interviews, answers to readers’ questions, book trailers, and contests. You may also find it fascinating to check out the fun acronyms they create for the stories but summarize on their website.
Casey's Corner 