Mystery & Thriller Genre

Word Count: Click here to reveal40926 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay, Transgender (Click here to hide)

Summary: Nick Fabian never made it as a CSI. His idealistic vision of the police as an institution dedicated to serving justice died in the harsh light of day, and he quit to become a freelance private investigator, taking on cases nobody else wanted to touch. Enter Emily Bright, a woman with a score to settle. Her best friend Sabrina was murdered, but local law enforcement is dead-set on ruling it a suicide. Determined to get justice, she turns to Nick. Nick feels the pain of one of his own and takes on the mantle of finding Sabrina's killer.But Point Clear has skeletons in its closet. A married local school teacher, Connor Long, had an affair with the victim and isn't above threatening Nick to keep his secret safe. Local man Roy Constas took Sabrina home that night, but he swears nothing happened between them. Emily herself raises suspicions when she reveals she was in love with Sabrina, a sentiment that was not returned. If Nick wants to get to the truth, he'll have to cut through the small-town prejudice and lies surrounding Sabrina's death, but that's not easy when the entire system is determined to bury the case and chase Nick out of town...

Word Count: Click here to reveal51700 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: The Legend of the Ghost Train continues: 1930’s Harlan County Kentucky Boone Douglas and Tucker Winchester are from different worlds, both knew that being homosexual could be a death sentence in this backwoods hell. Their love blossomed in spite of everything. Two men find love, during a difficult time for the Appalachian states, where many lived in poverty. They struggled, working long days in coal mines for pennies. There were also hostilities between mining companies and the unions who wanted to rally the mine workers. There’s a reason it’s called Bloody Harlan County. A greedy man, a cave full of miners, and two lovers suffered the worst fate imaginable.   Present Craig Waterson, a descendant of Tucker, fell down an abandoned air shift leading to a caved in mine. He dreamed or walked through the past seeing Boone and Tucker fall in love, then lose everything. When he awoke, he discovered that Tucker’s ghost had followed him to the present with a request. Craig, Tucker, and Doug Harper, Boone’s great nephew, work together to recover the remains of the miners who were killed in the Copperhead Mining Accident. Many secrets have to be uncovered before Boone and Tucker can find peace or Craig and Doug can find their own happily ever after.

Word Count: Click here to reveal72000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Vampires and werewolves live long lives. The Sleepless City saga might have ended but the story continues… Welcome to the Vampire Guard, where legend and myth meet science and technology. Vampires make the best spies. Throw a smart-mouthed werewolf in with three vampires, mix well, and The Vampire Guard's newest team is bound to become one of their greatest assets. Super spies with a full range of skills. Warrior, hacker, thief, and scientist. They get in, do the job and get out before the bad guys ever know what hit them. Forge, Blair, Declan, and Lucas are thrust into the world of high-tech spies and top-secret espionage conspiracies. Recruited into the world’s most elite and secret organization with one singular mission. Protect those who can’t defend themselves from ruin. Life becomes complicated when an impending Presidential visit to their town, Boggslake, throws them headlong into the world of the vampires and werewolves of the Vampire Guard. Very quickly they uncover and confront a werewolf terrorist organization known as the Qiguan. Together they must thwart an assassination attempt on the open waters of Lake Superior while tracking a previously unknown biological weapon controlled by the Qiguan—a weapon which may very well mean death for one of them.

Word Count: Click here to reveal83000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay, Transgender (Click here to hide)

Summary: Ghost wards are failing. Mediums are vanishing. Someone—or something—is stirring up the ghosts of Toronto. It’s up to psychic medium Harlan Brand to find out why. After defeating a serial killer who could control ghosts, psychic medium Harlan Brand is feeling much more confident in his abilities working for the Toronto Police Service with his partner, Hamilton, as they protect the city from dangerous spirits. He is expanding his social circle, however reluctantly, to include the other police mediums and Morgan Vermeer, another graduate from the Centre—a school for training psychic children. Harlan and his boyfriend, Charles Moore, are continuing to explore BDSM, their relationship and Charles’ strange ability to shield people from ghosts. Hoping to find answers about Charles’ power and the serial killer, Harlan returns to the Centre only to find that one of its ghost wards—magical symbols that spirits can’t cross—is broken, and it’s a mystery as to how and why. The calm and order that Harlan has been building up in his life are shattered when wards start failing across the city and mediums begin to disappear, including one of his new friends and a student from the Centre. Someone—or something—is stirring up the ghosts of Toronto.   Reader advisory: This book contains scenes of violence and murder. It is best read as part of a series.

Word Count: Click here to reveal98000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Straight (Click here to hide)

Summary: Six Dark Noir stories from Bill Kieffer's Aesop's World (anthropomorphic people) appear in this collection. Four of these stories are previously unpublished.

• Shepard (previously unpublished): It’s post Prohibition New Amsterdam and the world is full of conspiracies, syndicates, and crackpot cults. Cops have to be tough. Shepard is as hard headed and as hard hearted as they come. He has just one soft spot, an impossible love for Lynne Black, now married to a childhood friend. When Lynne calls to say her youngest boy was kidnapped, he drops everything to get the boy back. The boy that should have been his.
• Brooklyn Blackie and the Dudeless Dude Ranch (previously unpublished): Blake Black is a former beat cop who also happens to be a cunning linguist with a lot of baggage. He goes to Las Vegas in search of a missing woman. Between public sex acts and fighting with his ex partner, the Wolf-Dog hybrid realizes the woman he's been chasing is more than likely dead and not a woman...
• Brooklyn Blackie and the Rainbow in the Dark (unpublished): When a Dragon is fatally shot on his office steps, Brooklyn Blackie has to work with a Terrier detective that "heard things" about the Wolf-Dog and believes Blackie might be a vigilante. Despite his homophobia and (justified) suspicions of Blackie, he keeps the Hybrid close to keep an eye on him and take full advantage of his polyglot skills. This story explores the religion of the Chromatics.
• Brooklyn Blackie and the Unappetizing Menu (Inhuman Acts, 2015): Out of funds, and ready to take an insurance job rather than starve, Brooklyn Blackie visits his closest Reptilian friend, Dice, to boost his spirits. Instead, he finds a tenement building of full of dead Repts, supposedly frozen to death. No one will believe that it was murder but the weirdo tenement owner. The Warm Blooded police force want to keep the case open only long enough for the coroner to sign the paperwork. But everything turns on a loose piece of coal, leading the Wolf-Dog down a darker path than simple murder, leading him down a world where cannibals wear tuxedos and dine in the darkest shadows.
• Brooklyn Blackie and the Reverse Badger Game (unpublished, mature): Things are looking up for the bisexual Wolf-Dog and he's ready to start a life with his Otter and his Bitch. The Otter is mobbed up, but, he has an exit plan that will keep them all safe. And the first step is gang-raping Brooklyn Blackie to prove to his crew who the top dog really is.
• Unbalanced Scales (Roar 7, 2016): Rap stars like St. George and Dr. Ice are on the cusp of making millions in record deals... and if they don't kill each other first, it might be the start of a new dynasty.

Word Count: Click here to reveal40671 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay, Transgender (Click here to hide)

Summary: Nick Fabian has settled into life in the small Maine town of Point Clear with his boyfriend Roy Constas, but work in the P.I. business is slow. Struggling for money and a sense of purpose, he considers working at the local laundry with Emily, but the news that his old crush Lieutenant Scott Mordis has been murdered in Philadelphia ignites a deep yearning he'd been trying to snuff out. With their last parting a bitter one, Nick is conflicted about returning to Philly, but is driven by the force of his emotions to obtain justice for Scott. Roy insists on tagging along for the ride, refusing to be left behind. He's jealous of Nick's affection for his former mentor and boss, and the two men face their first major hurdle as a couple. Nick's journey will plunge him back into a cold case—that of Aiden Winters, the murder that drove a wedge between him and Scott in the first place—and he'll unearth connections between the two cases better left buried in the past…

Word Count: Click here to reveal56782 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: History says a famous villain died on the gallows on October 1, 1788. But what is the real story? And how do two contemporary men fit into this re-telling of history? M/M erotica wrapped in mystery The reticent undercover detective Thomas Fitzgerald is already deeply in love…with a man who has just met him in an “alternate reality.” Tight-lipped and uptight as he is, a confession is out of the question. And Burns, not quite the same man he fell in love with, is afraid that his caped hero may misunderstand his own “insta-love.” How can two stubborn men find that elusive connection between then and now? This is where time-travel, enters the story—a unique wynd in Edinburgh becomes the bridge that connects past, present and even perhaps the future. Follow two lovers across a bridge spanning more than two centuries as they struggle to reconcile not just the convenient lies of history, but also the truth about their own conflicted relationship. This full novel is the conclusion to the six-novella Burns! Mystery series and can be read as a stand-alone. Please note that the title has changed, from A Rainbow Bridge.

Word Count: Click here to reveal18,000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: FIRST TIME IN PRINT Johnny Lee Capstone never thinks about settling down. As the owner and proprietor of Capstone’s Dude Ranch, he tends to lust after the men who book vacation to his resort in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Sexy, insatiable, he focuses his attention on one man to feed his urgent needs. But something is about to change as he approaches his 40th birthday, which coincidentally falls on Christmas Day. From December 1st until the 25th Johnny Lee decides to take a sabbatical from hid desires--if he can. It’s a chance for him to reexamine his life as a new year nears. Someone else has something else in mind, a challenge that Johnny Lee finds confounding…and intriguing. It’s the first day of the holiday season when that initial package arrives, with the simple phrase stating, “Just the Advent.” A beginning. Each day another missive arrives. What does Johnny Lee do with this information, this tease? Who is sending them, and why? Is it the fact he’s hitting a new decade giving him a reason to rethink the way he lives his life? Is the sexuality that he thrives on about to alter him? Maybe, he’ll find a future. Beyond the physical; could Johnny Lee Capstone actually make love to a man?

Word Count: Click here to reveal30331 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Phillip Hapner was smart and good looking. He just had one problem. He liked to gamble, trouble was he wasn’t very good at it. Now, he was trying to stay alive and convince the leader of the underground gambling syndicate, that he didn’t know who was in charge. Well, he did have one other problem, Malachi Brady. The cop who was protecting him. Phillip wanted him, even though he knew the man was straight.   Malachi Brady had accepted that his brother was gay. He believed everyone was intitled to love whom they wanted. He knew he wasn’t gay, but he was feeling things for Phillip Hapner he’d never felt before. When he was assigned to protect Phillip, the sexual tension between them exploded. Could he figure out what was going on in his head and his body and who was behind the gambling syndicate in Atlanta.   The people who worked at the Knights Club are a family. And like any family, there are times when things just don’t go right.

Word Count: Click here to reveal11200 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: This is a Life Lessons short story 3.5, occurring a week after Home Work - book 3. (* contains significant spoilers for Home Work*) Mac, Tony, and the kids have had a long complicated year. Each of them has dealt with fears and losses, joys and triumphs. As December 31st approaches, it's time to look forward to the new year, and what may be in store. Mac and Tony figure whatever happens, they can handle it, as long as they go through it together.   11,000 words

Word Count: Click here to reveal125,090 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: In 2002, Mark Vincent, onetime senior special agent, ran into John, a troubled little boy, at a local McDonald’s. Concerned, although it wasn’t his business, he gave the kid his business card and left. Three years later, Mark is director of his department at the WBIS and married to Quinton Mann, the former CIA spook who now writes spy novels. They’ve settled into a life of quiet domesticity and are even considering adopting a cat. All this changes when John, now using another name, barrels into Mark’s life with a secret no one expects and on the run from an organization that wants him despite the collateral damage. What will Mark, the man known as “the best” in the intelligence community, do when he learns what this secret is? Will it affect his relationship with Quinn? And how complicated are things going to get when they decide to get involved?

Word Count: Click here to reveal32840 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Cal wanted to rescue his parents, however when he discovers everyone from the leader of his Cackle to his brother and even his own mate were plotting to leave without him he feels beyond hurt…he feels betrayed and leaving is the only answer. Jackson is devastated. He can’t eat. He can’t drink. He can’t sleep. His mate is gone and he isn’t any good to anyone. Discovering his mate is living with the Cackle next to his own sparks a life in him he had not had before. He knows he cannot go onto those lands without express permission by their leader but there is no time. He had to get to Cal and beg his mate for forgiveness. He had to put his life on the line. Cal was his and Jackson intended to bring him home or die trying.

Word Count: Click here to reveal67000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay, Pansexual (Click here to hide)

Summary: Wherever August Morrison and Ricardo Torralba go, chaos is sure to follow. The authors certainly know this, since their “standalone book” has now turned into a series with no end in sight, because…UGH. These two. We give up. Anyway. Detective David Chandler had no clue what he was getting into when he and his partner decided they were going to nail August for murder. They didn’t realize it was one of the few murders August didn’t commit, or that their homicide investigation would lead them into the middle of a mob war. Cavalcante underboss Pedro Silva knew asking August and Ricardo for help was a terrible idea. Just mentioning their names is bad for Pedro’s blood pressure. Owing them a favor? Oh Lord. He still asked, though, because he was out of options, but he can’t say he didn’t know he’d regret it. Neither man expected things to blow up this badly. Now they’re both on the run from the mafia, the cops, and everyone in between… except for August and Ricardo. On one hand, that means they have two expert assassins in their corner. On the other, it means they have the biggest troll on the planet heckling them at every turn. And sticking them in a safehouse together. With only one bed. And if August or Ricardo make one more comment about how Dave and Pedro should just hook up already… Cop vs. Capo is 67,500 words long, and is book 4 of the Hitman vs. Hitman series. CW: combat PTSD, alcoholism, on-page violence, discussion of abuse of a sex worker

Word Count: Click here to reveal51,000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: What happens when an autistic firefighter and his paramedic boyfriend share a thirst for true crime? Osian Garey and Dannel Ortea live together in a colourful flat in Covent Garden. They run a podcast and throw themselves wholeheartedly into Cosplay, video games, and musical theatre.  This year, they’re all fired up to attend their annual convention with a group of first responders. When Osian finds a paramedic friend murdered in the middle of the crowded venue, the police immediately turn their attention to him. They have one question on their mind. Is he the first witness on the scene or the killer? As the mystery unfolds, Osian has to face the trauma of his last job as a paramedic. Somewhere in those memories, a killer waits to exact revenge. They’ll have to prove Osian’s innocence and fight for their own survival when the killer puts them both in their sights.

Word Count: Click here to reveal80000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay (Click here to hide)

Summary: A death in the family. A body in the woods. A hidden threat growing stronger. Cody and Demetrius have been through a lot, but they're keeping positive attitudes and moving forward. Until, that is, the entire Bower clan comes into town, emotions running high, and their small house feels even tinier. If Cody thought being with his entire family in Colorado was bad, having them all in the house he shares with Demmy is worse. And of course it would be time for a monster case. Only this one is different. It's cunning, dangerous, and by the time Cody and Demetrius get involved, the threat is already burrowed deep within the town. But they’ve done this before, and they know what needs to be done. They’ll stick together and work with their odd collection of friends and family to unravel the mystery. When the threat strikes in unexpected ways, Cody and Demetrius face their most personal challenge yet. They forge ahead, digging into the details about the founding of Parson's Hollow itself for the key to save themselves and those they love here in the present. In a town where the truth about the past isn’t quite what they’ve been taught, they'll discover more about their histories, and each other, than they ever anticipated.

Word Count: Click here to reveal50,100 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: A small Western town quietly invaded, the residents bitten and turned in the night. A young man finally coming to terms with the immense and unusual power he wields. A friendship tested and evolving into something deeper. Vampires are taking over the frontier town of Belkin’s Pass, led by an ancient and evil vampire named Balthazar. No one has recognized the evil taking root… until tonight. Josh Stanton is a wanted man. He’s lived on the outskirts of the town’s social circles all his life, and, after a tragedy caused by his own hand, flees into Venom Valley, feeling he has no one to turn to for help. Not even Dex, his best friend and a man he secretly loves. Dex Wells has loved Josh for longer than he can remember. But as a town deputy, he’s torn between his feelings for Josh and his duty to the town. When Josh is in trouble, Dex races to Josh’s aid ahead of the Sheriff, needing to hear the truth about his situation… and perhaps confess the depth of his feelings. Glory, a half White, half Apache saloon girl, and the only survivor from the nighttime attack on the One-Eyed Rooster, strikes out on her own. She has no plan, yet, but vows to avenge those she’s left behind. Together, these three unlikely heroes must come together to fight back against the vampire Balthazar. If they fail, his evil will spread across the West and, eventually, the rest of the country.

Word Count: Click here to reveal60000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Justin Warfield ran away to Italy to put the events of last summer and a certain dark-haired private eye behind him, to no avail. If anything, he can’t help but rehash what happened over and over. When he finally returns to South Carolina, the hotel he runs with his brother has suffered a series of incidents that are starting to look less accidental after a death threat is received. Not satisfied that Moses Lee and his local police will find the culprit, Peter Warfield calls in the services of his good friend Marcus Drummond to help. Marcus is torn. He wants to help his friend, but he also knows that if Justin has moved on after their failed flirtation last summer, he will be devastated. Tensions mount as danger seems to follow them at every turn, stalking them as they get closer to solving the mystery of who is behind the sabotage of the hotel.

Word Count: Click here to reveal60,000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: NEWLY REISSUED, WITH NEW COVER ART! Jimmy McSwain returns to help his sister's boyfriend fight a murder charge--and finds he may just have a lead on a cold case. Hell's Kitchen private investigator Jimmy McSwain returns in a twisting tale of past sins and present-day vengeance. Jimmy McSwain isn't thrilled about taking a case for free—but when his sister fears her boyfriend, Rocky, is cheating on her, he has no choice. But the case takes a deadly turn when Rocky is standing over the body of a man he was just seen kissing, and he's holding the gun. He begs Jimmy to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, as a sweltering heat wave claims New York City, a gunman with a thirst for blood is targeting Manhattan deli owners and has already claimed two victims. Jimmy knows a thing or two about those—fourteen years ago his father was killed outside a deli, and it's possible today's killer could be linked to that unsolved murder, one that continues to haunt Jimmy. Enlisting the aid of sexy NYPD Captain Francis X. Frisano, Jimmy finds himself torn between the two cases, as well as the heat simmering between himself and the hot cop. Suddenly a quiet summer has erupted into a full blown crime wave.

Word Count: Click here to reveal82679 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Everyone deserves to be loved. But with constant abuse from his step-father and his mother’s contempt, Christian Goodley isn’t so sure. Being gay in high school is hard enough. Also being the black sheep in the family with only one friend in the world makes life damn near impossible to bear. But when Christian’s path crosses with a new teacher his senior year, a ray of hope brings new life and meaning to his world. Damien Duvel, a recent college graduate and History teacher, forges a bond of friendship with Christian that the young man so desperately needs. As their relationship evolves and matures the rumor mill in the school starts turning. Hushed whispers and sidelong glances turn to outright accusations. For both Christian and Damien it would seem that fate had brought them together. But with so many factors conspiring against them, it is unclear whether they can tow the fine line they walk without stepping away unscathed emotionally or physically.

Word Count: Click here to reveal96460 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Christian Goodley did the unthinkable and now he’s left everyone to suffer the consequences of his actions. His family returned home from church, only to find him laying on the floor, in a pool of his own blood. At the hospital, Vivian got the devastating news about her son. With the family trying to put the pieces of their lives back together, Vivian is having stomach pains and after an important phone call, returned to the hospital. There, she received two additional pieces of information that forever altered the course of her life. Consequently, Vivian set forth a plan of action to undo years of her wrongdoings. While Vivian was focused on her plan and protecting her life-changing secrets, tensions start to brew between Cordell and his stepfather. This unfolds a past of abuse, lies and betrayal that in turn, leads to an ultimate showdown that threatens one of their lives. Because of his web of lies and secrets, Damien’s personal life is a disaster. His professional life, on the other hand, couldn’t be better. He is selected to represent his school at a national teaching conference. While on this trip, he accidentally stumbles across evidence that questions everything he knows to be true. Is Damien’s mind playing a dirty trick on him or is this newfound information actually reality? Crimes of the Heart 2: The Aftermath, is a story of secrets, lies, betrayal and redemption. Just how far would a remorseful mother go to protect her flesh and blood?g