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Editorial Content for The Unlucky Ones: A Black Harbor Novel

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

THE UNLUCKY ONES is by far the darkest and bleakest entry in the Black Harbor series. Hannah Morrissey dredges the depths of the troubles that are befalling the town of Black Harbor with chilling results.

Former police transcriber Hazel Greenlee is still tormented by her ex-husband, Tommy, even though she is now living in New York. This cruel man haunts both her dreams and her waking hours. In their last text to each other before his untimely death, Tommy sent her this message: “If all you had to do was one bad thing, and you could leave Black Harbor behind forever, would you do it?”

"THE UNLUCKY ONES is a dark journey, far bleaker than anything Hannah Morrissey has shown us before."

Sergeant Nikolai Kole, who happens to be Hazel's ex-husband, is the one who discovers the lifeless body of Tommy, who was gunned down in the back of an underground club. Kole already has been swamped with the out-of-control drug epidemic in Black Harbor and spiking criminal activities everywhere. A new drug has hit the streets; it's an instant killer as it contains fentanyl and other dangerous substances inside each pill.

Tommy’s death reaches Hazel and brings her back to Black Harbor for his funeral. As she goes through her old house, she encounters Kole, who informs her that she is messing with a potential crime scene. This ends up being a very legitimate concern as they locate a kilo bag of the new drug stuffed inside a mounted deer head. They wonder if this could be what got Tommy killed, and Kole realizes that he needs to involve his confidential informant to dig for more information on the local drug trade.

Kole's primary CI for this investigation is Harriet, who warns him about Buddha. This individual supposedly is behind Tommy's murder, as well as the subsequent homicide of his best friend, Cam. When Kole finds a suspicious lottery ticket on Cam's body, he gets a chill as he has a copy of the same ticket on him, which harks back to an unsolved case from nine years earlier. Meanwhile, Kole is also dealing with his own brother allegedly getting tossed off the town bridge by a potential suspect in their case.

Hazel is initially placed under house arrest but soon is freed to add her perspective regarding a case that may now be turning into a hunt for a serial killer. The answers they get from their search will reveal not only things about the seedy underbelly of Black Harbor, but also much that is personal to both Kole and Hazel.

THE UNLUCKY ONES is a dark journey, far bleaker than anything Hannah Morrissey has shown us before. Whoever is left standing at the end of this book will not have much to look forward to, because whatever law enforcement is able to solve is only a symptom of a much larger disease that has taken hold of Black Harbor.

Teaser

Black Harbor is a tinderbox. Temperatures and violent crime have both risen to all-time highs, a new drug razes the city, and the scene to which Sergeant Nikolai Kole responds is anything but a rote homicide. In the back of a clubhouse lies a body wrapped in garbage bags and doused in bleach. Tommy Greenlee, the ex-husband of Kole’s former lover, Hazel, has been shot several times and left for dead. What’s more, the killer left what appears to be a calling card. Elsewhere, Hazel is haunted by her memories of Black Harbor. Lured there after eight years, she returns to find out who killed Tommy and why. Now back in Kole’s orbit, their love affair can hardly pick up where it left off. As they work together to solve this murder, not only will they unearth Black Harbor’s deepest, darkest secrets, they each will have to face their own.

Promo

Black Harbor is a tinderbox. Temperatures and violent crime have both risen to all-time highs, a new drug razes the city, and the scene to which Sergeant Nikolai Kole responds is anything but a rote homicide. In the back of a clubhouse lies a body wrapped in garbage bags and doused in bleach. Tommy Greenlee, the ex-husband of Kole’s former lover, Hazel, has been shot several times and left for dead. What’s more, the killer left what appears to be a calling card. Elsewhere, Hazel is haunted by her memories of Black Harbor. Lured there after eight years, she returns to find out who killed Tommy and why. Now back in Kole’s orbit, their love affair can hardly pick up where it left off. As they work together to solve this murder, not only will they unearth Black Harbor’s deepest, darkest secrets, they each will have to face their own.

About the Book

A police transcriber-turned-novelist returns to Black Harbor to help solve the case of her ex-husband’s murder in the next riveting Black Harbor novel, featuring the return of characters from Hannah Morrissey's breakout debut, HELLO, TRANSCRIBER.

Black Harbor is a tinderbox. Temperatures and violent crime have both risen to all-time highs, a new drug razes the city and the scene to which Sergeant Nikolai Kole responds is anything but a rote homicide. In the back of a clubhouse lies a body wrapped in garbage bags and doused in bleach.

It isn’t just any body. Tommy Greenlee, the ex-husband of Kole’s former lover, Hazel, has been shot several times and left for dead. What’s more...the killer left what appears to be a calling card.

Elsewhere, Hazel is haunted by her memories of Black Harbor. Lured there after eight years, she returns to find out who killed Tommy and why. Now back in Kole’s orbit, their love affair can hardly pick up where it left off. They both used each other to their own ends before, which begs the question: would they do it again?

With the atmosphere growing more volatile by the second, Hazel and Kole call a truce and as they work together to solve this murder, they will not only unearth Black Harbor’s deepest, darkest secrets --- they’ll each have to face their own.

Audiobook available, read by Angela Dawe and Robb Moreira